THE head of the centre-left pressure group Compass today hit out at the Labour Party’s “petty tyranny” as he claimed he faced expulsion as a member after 44 years.

Neal Lawson said he was being driven out by “bullies” over an “uncontentious” tweet he sent in 2021 in support of a Liberal Democrat MP’s call for some voters to back Green candidates in the local elections.

In a piece for the Guardian, he said: “The reason is that the party machine is no longer run in this long and rich spirit of pluralism.”