Labour Party 'purge': Trade union chief Draper has suspension lifted

A Jeremy Corbyn-supporting trade union chief has had his suspension from Labour lifted after successfully appealing the surprise ban. Bakers' Union general secretary Ronnie Draper told IBTimes UK he met party officials on Friday morning (9 September) and learned of the U-turn just hours later via email.

Draper, who represents more than 19,000 members, said he was "ecstatic" after learning that he could now vote in the Labour leadership contest.

But the left-winger called for "justice" from Labour and urged the party to conduct a blanket lift of suspensions in a bid to reverse what shadow chancellor John McDonnell has branded a "rigged purge".

"We want the same treatment for those people that I got," Draper told IBTimes UK.

"How many people do the Labour Party employ, have they got enough people to listen to all of these hearings for these thousands of people who have been suspended? I would call for a blanket lifting of the ban. If you want to talk to people afterwards about whether they've done something wrong, then do it."

A Labour Party spokesperson told IBTimes UK they would not comment on Draper's proposal.

The union chief, who backed a Brexit at the EU referendum, previously told IBTimes UK he was "shocked" by his suspension over an "unidentified" positing on social media site Twitter.

The development comes less than two weeks before the 21 September deadline for Labour members to return their leadership election ballots.

Corbyn, who attracted almost 60% of the vote in 2015, is expected to win the contest.

His sole challenger Owen Smith is 24 points behind him (62% versus 38%), according to the most recent YouGov poll for The Times.

Elsewhere, Bookmaker William Hill has said Corbyn, who almost secured 60% of the vote in 2015, is now a "virtually unbackable" favourite to win the contest, with odds of 1/25 (96% chance of victory).