LABOUR Party chiefs have been accused of conducting a 'witch-hunt' after a lifelong member and respected former union official was expelled for openly supporting what he says are socialist values.

Alan McGuckin, 68, became a trade union member at 16 and a shop steward a year later. He joined the Labour Party two years later in 1973 before going on to forge a successful career as a full-time official with the T&GWU union.

He has also served as a Labour councillor, initially in the North-East and then after taking a union job in Cumbria in Carlisle.

A former chairman of the Cumbria Forum of Trades Unions, he retired in 2015 but remained involved in Labour politics, representing Carlisle’s Castle ward on Cumbria County Council since 2014.

But the political veteran will now be forced to sit as an “independent socialist” county councillor after an official investigation by his party determined that he should be expelled, forcing him out of both the Labour Party nationally and Penrith and the Border Constituency Labour Party, his local party since 1993.

Mr McGuckin – always a vocal supporter of the party’s controversial left-leaning former leader Jeremy Corbyn - said party officials initially told him he was being investigated because of a letter he wrote for Militant Magazine in 1978.

After he pointed out that this was essentially him criticising the group, he was told his expulsion was linked to Facebook comments he posted in 2019 and 2020 on a page run by Left Labour Alliance.

That group was this year banned by party chiefs.

In his official letter confirming his expulsion on July 29, officials told him he had 'demonstrated support' for an organisation that has been banned by the party.

But he insists his comments were simply inoffensive opinions about the left-wing activism of the group involved. 

Officials say he "actively participated" in the group and this was the main reason for his explusion, though he does have a right of appeal.

Asked for his feelings about being kicked out of the Party he has spent a lifetime working for, Mr McGuckin said: “It’s disgraceful.

“But it’s not surprising, given the regime that Keir Starmer has introduced into the Labour Party. It appears to be a crime to stand on the left, defending the socialist values of the party. I want Labour to be a broad church but I’d like it to prefer socialist values.

“I don’t think we can afford to have people in the party who don’t want to transform society.” In his 50 years in the party, he said, he had never seen such a “one-sided civil war" being waged those on the left of the party.

He described what has happened to him as a “bureaucratic, heavy-handed witch-hunt,” but said: “There’ll always be socialists in the Labour Party, not matter what the right wing tries to do about it.”

He claimed party chiefs were now trying to “purge the party of those who oppose capitalism,” adding: “But I have had a lot of sympathy from other members.”

Mr McGuckin is being supported by Karen Lockney, a Labour county councillor for Carlisle's Denton Holme, who is also an education officer for the Penrith and the Border Labour Party and for the TUC.

News and Star: Labour county councillor Karen Lockney says the Labour Party should be a tolerant "broad church" which tolerates a wide range of opinions.Labour county councillor Karen Lockney says the Labour Party should be a tolerant "broad church" which tolerates a wide range of opinions.

She said: “I’m very sad that somebody who has given a lifetime of service to the Labour Party has had his membership terminated in such a sudden way, without a great deal of explanation.”

Nor had there been communication from party bosses about what happened to Mr McGuckin with constituency Labour Party members, she said.

Asked if she considered what has happened to Mr McGuckin to be a witch-hunt, she replied: “Yes, I agree with that.

“I think we’re a healthier party with a bigger membership… and stronger if we’re a broad church which tolerates and understands different opinions and allows people a right of reply and enters into dialogue with people rather than abruptly expelling them.

“That way, the party would be healthier and more effective.”

She spoke also of the friendship and support Alan McGuckin had given her since she became involved in Labour politics and added that the party would be poorer without his extensive experience and knowledge.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: "The Labour Party takes all complaints extremely seriously and they are fully investigated in line with our rules and procedures, and any appropriate disciplinary action is taken."

REVEALED: The social media posts which led to the expulsion of Labour Party stalwart