In 2016, after six years of Conservative austerity had slowly drained the life blood from so many of the services relied on by the majority of the British public, filmmaker and political activist Ken Loach asked a poignant question:

“If you are not angry, what kind of person are you?”

Of course, Ken Loach was referring to the ‘constant humiliation to survive’ that the conscious cruelty of an overhauled and ravaged benefits system had visited on thousands of people. Yet, today, two days after Ken Loach’s expulsion from the Labour Party, this question feels more poignant than ever. But, this time, instead of anger at cuts to public services and the decimation of the British welfare system the question needs to be asked in relation to the expulsion of a dedicated, highly regarded and passionate defender of social justice, from the very party which is meant to share and uphold these values.

Since the Labour Party is refusing to comment in individual cases of expulsion, including to the people they are expelling, then members and voters have little to go on other than the increasing evidence of a ruthless purge of left-wing members on dubious charges of ‘incompatibility’ with the party’s values. This begs the question, if the values of Ken Loach, a lifelong socialist and ardent campaigner for social justice and equality are not ‘compatible’ with the Labour Party, then what does the Labour Party actually stand for? For decades Ken Loach has stood with the poor and the disenfranchised, the oppressed and the disempowered, he has been a voice for people with no voice and has given a platform to people with nowhere to stand. For the Labour Party to claim that his values are not only incompatible with their own, but to darken his name with the smear of anti-Semitism accusations, which Ken Loach has robustly refuted, is quite simply, unforgivable. People only need to see the legacy of Ken Loach’s work and activism to see that he is not only in no way anti-Semitic, but is an unequivocal anti-racist.

To add to this troubling situation the Executive Committee of Bath CLP (Ken Loach's own CLP) have remained completely silent on his expulsion, refusing point blank to answer the many questions from local members and seeming to try to hide queries about their stance on the CLP Facebook page. Ken Loach has been an active member of Bath CLP for many years and has given time, energy, publicity and, importantly, friendship to many on the EC. This silence speaks so loudly to all of those who wonder, "Will the CLP do the things they've promised for the residents of their constituency if they gained the seat in the next GE? If they cannot defend a friend and ally can they be trusted by the electorate?"'

What the Labour Party needs to start to understand is that left wing people are not only Labour Party members, apparently there to be treated with cruel disregard and contempt, but they are also voters. Voters who can swing elections and change the electoral landscape for the Labour Party, for better or for worse. Contrary to the assumptions of Peter Mandelson, working class voters did find other political homes outside of the Labour Party and left-wing voters have this choice too. Whilst decades of Labour taking working people for granted resulted in many turning their backs on the party, the same will be true of those who hoped the Labour Party would stand for the values of equity, fairness and democracy, the values of the many, not the few. These voters have been betrayed by a party they believed to be their only hope for a progressive, forward-thinking Britain.

The behaviour of the party leadership in recent months, culminating in the expulsion of Ken Loach, has been staggering, like watching a slow-motion car crash, the wreckage of which holds a once respected and revered party of the people. Ken Loach is not only popular with left leaning voters and Labour Party members, but with people of other political persuasions and none. Quite what the Labour leadership hope to achieve with this ongoing smear campaign and witch hunt is beyond the imagination of anyone outside of the party machine. All the general public can see is a party which is betraying its most dedicated and trusted members, which is stripping all semblance of democracy from its internal functions and fighting with its own shadow.

The Labour Party claims to be a broad church and very much needs to be a broad church if there is any chance of coming close to defeating the Conservatives at the next general election. This means accepting dissenting voices and working with dedicated socialists both in and outside the party. The Labour Party needs to learn the lessons of 2017 as well as 2019 and stop behaving as though a key section of their voting base, left wing people, are somehow an embarrassment to be brushed under the carpet so that they can access some imagined electorate of people they may be able to persuade away from the Conservatives with flags and empty rhetoric. If Labour do not start to really understand the desperate changes needed in this country, highlighted by people like Ken Loach, then it is highly likely they will lose even more seats in the next general election and inflict another five years of a hard right Conservative government, years we really cannot afford to lose.

So we, the undersigned, ask this question of Keir Starmer, those in the Labour leadership team and MPs and CLPs who have stayed silent over the injustice of Ken Loach’s expulsion- ‘if you’re not angry, what kind of people are you?’