Labour facing mutiny over Woolas expulsion

Harriet Harman is under fire for cutting disgraced ex-minister Phil Woolas adrift from Labour for lying about election opponents.

The party's deputy leader was swift to say there was no way back for Mr Woolas, who was immediately suspended from the party after the election court verdict, even if he won any subsequent appeal.

She faced criticism at Monday's weekly meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party for appearing to pre-judge the issue.

David Watts, MP for St Helens North, said: "There is a concern within the Parliamentary Labour Party, first of all that courts are getting involved in such practices.

"If there's going to be action taken against any individual, we have a procedure in place to deal with that, and that means the member concerned will be suspended whilst an investigation takes place."

Mr Woolas was stripped of his Oldham East and Saddleworth seat and banned from standing for election for three years by the specially-convened Election Court in the first such judgment for 99 years.

It heard he stirred up racial tensions in a desperate bid to retain his seat which he eventually won by 103 votes. Ms Harman said after the hearing that Mr Woolas had no future as a Labour MP even if he succeeds in overturning the ruling because lies had "no place" in its campaigning.