“THE Labour Party was formed out of the trade union movement to give working people their own political voice. The link from the workplace to the party through the affiliated trade unions is what makes it unique to this day. This link is more important than ever as we work together to tackle the urgent problems we face as a country, from stagnating wages to failing public services.”

That is not me speaking, but the Labour Party’s own website in 2021. Only, the party now seems to have little respect for some of its own statements.

One of the latest targets of its purge of left-wingers is the national president of one of the oldest unions, who has traditionally organised among very poorly paid workers. He is Ian Hodson of the Bakers, Food and Allied Workers’ Union (BFAWU), currently in receipt of a letter threatening him with potential expulsion dressed up in the Orwellian euphemism “auto-exclusion.”