EXPELLED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 21, 26 January 1939, Page 11

EXPELLED.

SIR S. CRIPPS. Action by Labour Party's Executive. CHARGES OF DISLOYALTY. United Press Association.—Copyright. (Received 10 a.m.) LONDON, January 25. The Labour party's national executive, with one dissentient, expelled Sir Stafford Cripps from the party after discussion of charges of disloyalty by issuing to local Labour parties a memorandum on a Popular Front, after the executive's rejection of the proposal.

Sir Stafford attended the meeting and vigorously denied any desire to split the party. The memorandum on the Popular Front contemplated some kind of understanding with the other political opponents of the National Government, and was intended to improve the prospects of Opposition candidates at the next general election. Sir Stafford was himself a member of the executive. The Labour Council of Bristol East, Sir Stafford Cripps' constituency, passed a resolution expressing confidence in Sir Stafford. Richard Stafford Cripps, SolicitorGenera) in the British Labour Government of 1929, was born in 1883, and educated at Winchester School and University College, London. His father was the first Lord Parmoor, a famous lawyer with pacifist leanings, who joined the Labour [party, and as Lord President of the Council was leader of the party in the House of Lords in the Governments of 1924 and 1929. Following his father's career, Sir Stafford was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple in 1913. He specialised, like liis father, in ecclesiastical law, and by the time he became a K.C. in 1927 was recognised a* an authority. He was knighted and elected M.P. far Bristol in 1931. His plan for the immediate introduction of Socialism on a Labour Government coming into power attracted much attention in 1933. He declared- in 1936 for a United Front against capitalism, comprising his Socialist League, the Communists, and the Independent Labour party. When the Labour party executive decided that membership of the Labour party was incompatible with membership of the Socialist League, Sir Stafford forestalled expulsion by dissolving the league. His statements in the past few years led a Labour M.P. to remark: "Every time Cripps opens his mouth he loses us 20,000 votes."