A Corbynista Labour member and whistleblower who stood as an independent candidate in Home Secretary Amber Rudd’s seat has been expelled from the party.
Former solicitor Nicholas Wilson contested Hastings and Rye in the general election earlier this month, winning 412 votes.
Labour missed out on winning the seat by just 346 votes after a tense recount, and the party said Wilson’s actions had been ‘particularly detrimental’ and were a breach of its membership rules.
Posting a picture of his expulsion letter on Twitter, Wilson - who describes himself as a whistleblower and anti-corruption campaigner - said he had joined Labour to vote for Jeremy Corbyn.
He told HuffPost UK he had anticipated Labour would take action against him.
“I expected it, I broke the rules,” he said.
“However, they also expelled the guy who did my graphic design for my campaign, which I think is a bit pathetic and suggests a witch hunt.
“It is very short-sighted of Labour and I had offered to stand for them, but they ignored me.”
Wilson, 59, won a landmark case against HSBC earlier this year which resulted in a multi-million pound compensation payout for thousands of people who were hit with excessive credit card charges.
He added: “I helped demolish Amber Rudd’s majority, made Hastings a marginal seat and prevented Amber Rudd from becoming PM because of her censoring my discussing HSBC.
“I campaign against corruption, I have not focused on Labour but may do so now, especially in light of the Grenfell Tower tragedy and corruption in the construction industry.”
A Labour South East spokesman said: “Our local members in Hastings and Rye ran a fantastic unified local campaign which ran Amber Rudd close. We will be redoubling our efforts to make sure Hastings and Rye returns a Labour MP at the next general election, whenever it may be.”