LABOUR officials have ordered the Brighton and Hove party be split into three in a move which would effectively protect MP Peter Kyle from deselection from left-wingers.

And the party has also moved swiftly to kick out the man elected local party chairman this summer amid accusations of intimidation and voting irregularities.

Mark Sandell has been expelled following an investigation into his links to other left-wing groups.

It is understood a further 15 other members are being expelled in a purge of activist group Momentum.

Following the annulment of July's elections which saw Jeremy Corbyn supporters voted on to the local party executive, members have waited for months for a decision on the party's future after the result was annulled by the national party.

The disputes panel of the National Executive Committee (NEC) has ordered the local Labour party, which with more than 6,000, members is the largest in the country, be broken up into three smaller parties representing the city's three constituencies.

The process could begin within a matter of days with new parties likely to be formed between January and the implementation of new constituency boundaries at the end of 2017.

Corbyn supporters have called for a public meeting of party members to fight the proposals and have urged party branches to pass motions calling for all expelled and suspended members to be re-instated immediately.

Greg Hadfield, who was voted treasurer in the July elections, said he was aware of 15 local party suspensions but claimed to have received threats that more suspensions were "in the post".

Mr Hadfield said the local party had been "left out to dry" and warned that change should not be imposed on the local party from outside.

Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who was the existing chairman and has remained in post pending the result of the investigation, said the move would ensure compliance with national party rules six years after being given special dispensation to operate as a city party.

He said proposals to create constituency parties had been raised by Corbyn-supporting executive members ahead of July’s AGM.

He added: “It will ensure that the Brighton, Hove and District Labour Party will be more democratic because it will be able to focus on local issues, East Brighton and Portslade might share similarities but they also have different issues where people need to do local campaigning.

“There are always risks everywhere, I don’t see why it would be the outcome that this would mean more factionalism.”

Council leader Warren Morgan said: "I hope that the situation with the local party structure and certain individuals can now be resolved swiftly, and all of our 6,000 Labour Party members can focus on re-electing Peter Kyle, electing two more local Labour MPs whenever the general election comes and working for the re-election of myself and my Labour council team in 2019 with a much-needed majority."

Hove MP Peter Kyle said the local party organisation had to adapt to meet Labour's "exhilarating growth in membership".

He said: "The party seems to have come to the conclusion that it's not fair to expect volunteers to manage all of the administrative challenges of running such a demanding and complex organisation and therefore to return to our three constituency organisations that served us so well in the past.

"As far as my role as a Labour representative and MP, this change won’t have any baring on my duties and as far as I can tell any political implications either."

PARTY DISPUTES IN PRIVATE EYE AND ON TV

"This is a battle for the heart and soul of the Labour Party.”

So said the never-knowingly understated Greg Hadfield on a recent BBC Panorama documentary into the dispute that has raged at the heart of the city’s Labour party for months.

The outspoken journalist stands alongside thousands of party supporters who have been fired up by Jeremy Corbyn since he became leader in September 2015.

The city has come to represent a microcosm of the ongoing feud within the party nationwide as Corbyn believers and non-believers battle it out to take control of which direction the party is going in.

Hence why the local party was the subject of not one but two national television documentaries on one night last month and why Mr Hadfield, a man who has never held elected office, was given the honour of being profiled in Private Eye earlier this month.

This battle really hotted up one Saturday in July.

Hours before the local party AGM at City College, hundreds of Momentum supporters gathered and to the surprise of election organisers turned up en masse to vote for their candidates.

So many people turned up to vote that some members had to be stopped from entering the room and the vote was staggered because the venue was not big enough to hold everyone in one sitting.

Corbyn supporters were elected to all four of the key positions on the executive committee with Mark Sandell elected chairman, Greg Hadfield secretary, Anne Pissaridou vice chairwoman and Claire Wadey treasurer.

Even before the annulment that would come within a matter of days, there were warnings from more centrist members such as council leader Warren Morgan that the party had been “taken over” by members who were “extremely hostile” to him.

Accusations then began to fly over intimidation at the count, a spitting incident and claims of vote irregularities – claims that Corbyn supporters in the party argue have all been subsequently disproved and debunked.

In the days following the elections, all members were under the impression that the local party had been suspended.

A statement at the time from the NEC even stated that the party had been suspended and election results annulled.

Now the official NEC line is that the party was never formally suspended though there were restrictions on meetings during the national leadership contest, which ended in a resounding victory for Corbyn at the end of September.

Months passed by without a decision on the party’s future and on the membership of several members including Mr Sandell who stood accused of entryism because of his previous links to the far-left group the Alliance for Workers’ Liberty.

A decision was anticipated at an NEC meeting last month but after eight-and-a-half hours of discussion, largely about the Panorama and Dispatches documentaries, there was no time left to discuss the fate of the Brighton and Hove party.

All indications are that a report into the elections and allegations of skullduggery is unlikely to see the light of day.

What is more certain is that the wranglings both locally and nationally are unlikely to end soon.

While the resounding re-election of Corbyn as leader has worked to some extent to quieten internal criticism in an effort to show party unity, it’s clear tensions still lie beneath the surface.

Those tensions could come to the fore again once the implications of this restructure in Brighton and Hove become more apparent with members on all sides calling for a swift resolution being led from a local level and not imposed from on high.

And an aggrieved Mark Sandell has already indicated to The Argus that he will not be taking his expulsion lying down.

As Mr Hadfield so succinctly put it – the stakes for Labour supporters could not be higher.

LOCAL PARTY LEADER ROLE CUT SHORT

THE reign of Mark Sandell as Brighton, Hove and District Labour Party chairman was cut short after less than a week.

Elected to the post at the start of July, it was just a matter of days before the national party intervened to annul the results and effectively put the party in stasis while Jeremy Corbyn contested the leadership.

A 50-year-old former secondary school teacher, whose political heroes are Karl Marx, Keir Hardie, and Leon Trotsky, Mr Sandell has been a Labour Party member on and off since 1986.

His previous activism with the Trotskyist Alliance for Workers’ Liberty (AWL) led to accusations of entryism and his expulsion.

He told The Argus yesterday: “The reason why I have been expelled is because they want to weaken the left and attack the people who won the elections.

“The stated excuse was that I support the AWL which is not an expellable offence because it is not a proscribed organisation and my connection to them was well-known before I stood for chairman.

“I will be appealing because I have been expelled by an unelected body [the party’s compliance unit] so I will be appealing to the national executive committee.”

Last month, covert footage of Mr Sandell telling a meeting that Hove MP Peter Kyle should be removed for disagreeing with his party leader’s policies made national headlines.

Mr Sandell remains defiant that if Labour felt the move to three constituency parties would strengthen Mr Kyle’s position, they could be proved wrong.

Peter Kyle said: “It has become abundantly clear through examination of Mark Sandell’s past political activity, and his statements in recent weeks, that there are marginal groups that will offer him a more comfortable political home.

“I wish him well for his future beyond the Labour Party.”