British left-wing film director Ken Loach has been expelled from the Labour Party for backing other targets of leader Sir Keir Starmer's "witch hunt".
Loach, a prominent supporter of suspended former party leader Jeremy Corbyn, tweeted the news on Saturday.
The "Kes" director hinted that he had joined Geronimo the Alpaca on Starmer's hit list for his refusal to "disown" members of four left-wing factions banned last month by the party leadership — and said former director of public prosecutions Sir Keir was no man of "the people".
"Well, I am proud to stand with the good friends and comrades victimised by the purge. There is indeed a witch hunt", Loach charged. "Starmer and his clique will never lead a party of the people. We are many, they are few. Solidarity".
Corbyn's former shadow home secretary, John McDonnell — who is closely associated with Socialist Appeal — denounced the expulsion of "such a fine socialist" as a "disgrace".
Yet, McDonnell also recently welcomed the defection to Labour of former Conservative MP and Parliamentary speaker John Bercow, who was chairman of the Conservative Students when that organisation produced "Hang Nelson Mandela" t-shirts.
Corbyn himself tweeted in solidarity with the director late on Saturday night.
Loach also drew support on Twitter from left-wing Labour MPs, trade union leaders, and former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis of the Syriza party.
Loach gained fame in the sixties for his "kitchen sink" social dramas such as "Cathy Come Home", "Poor Cow", and "Kes".
But his 1995 film "Land and Freedom", set during the Spanish Civil War, was controversial for its sectarian claims of atrocities by Soviet-backed Republican forces resisting the fascist takeover led by General Francisco Franco, while glorifying the six-day May 1937 Trotskyist POUM insurrection in Barcelona against the Socialist-led government of the republic.
Loach's last two films "I, Daniel Blake" and "Sorry We Missed You" deal with the lives of a benefit claimant and package delivery drivers.
The latest polls show Starmer's Labour still trailing Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Tories by around ten percentage points, despite a string of recent government rows and scandals.