A GROUP of left wing Labour MPs and peers are demanding the readmission of award-winning film-maker Ken Loach into the party.
The Cathy Come Home and Sweet Sixteen director was expelled from Labour at the weekend amid a "purge" of critics of Sir Keir Starmer leadership and growing tensions.
Today 20 MPs including former leader Jeremy Corbyn, former Chancellor John McDonnell, Jon Trickett along with five members of the Lords, including the Scottish peer Pauline Bryan (Baroness Bryan of Partick) called for Loach's membership to be reinstated.
READ MORE: Why there’s lesson for Scotland in Labour’s shameful expulsion of Loach
All of those calling for Loach to be readmitted are members of the left wing Socialist Campaign Group.
In a statement released this afternoon they hit out at the film maker's expulsion.
It said: "We strongly oppose the expulsion of Ken Loach from the Labour party and call for his membership to be immediately reinstated.
"Ken is an outstanding socialist and a fierce opponent of discrimination in all its forms, whose work has done more than any other living British film maker to shine a light on justice and oppression.
"The values embodied in his films - solidarity, compassion and equality - should be the values proudly championed by our party."
Reinstate Ken Loach. pic.twitter.com/WNkUV1jPcU
— Jon Trickett MP (@jon_trickett) August 16, 2021
The statement went on to urge Labour members to champion socialist values.
Loach, 85, a life long socialist, said on Saturday he had been ejected after he refused to “disown” other critics from the Labour left who had already been removed.
The move came after the party last month expelled four associated groups on the grounds that they were “not compatible” with Labour values.
They included groups which had been critical of Sir Keir's efforts to tackle anti-Semitism within the party’s ranks.
In a defiant series of tweets, Loach insisted that the “clique” around the Labour leader would never ultimately prevail.
“Labour HQ finally decided I’m not fit to be a member of their party, as I will not disown those already expelled,” he said.
READ MORE: Kes swoops back on to Scottish stage 50 years after Ken Loach film
“Well, I am proud to stand with the good friends and comrades victimised by the purge.
“There is indeed a witch hunt.
“Starmer and his clique will never lead a party of the people.
“We are many, they are few. Solidarity.”
Loach, a supporter of Corbyn, has long expressed his socialist ideals through films such as Kes, I, Daniel Blake and Sorry We Missed You.
He has made a number of films in Scotland, including Ae Fond Kiss and Sweet Sixteen, which launched the career of Greenock-born actor Martin Compston.
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