Sir Stafford Cripps' Expulsion The National Executive of the Labour
party on Wednes- day took the drastic and decisive step of expelling Sir Staf- ford Cripps from the party. When Parliament meets the. Party Whip will be withdrawn from him and the Opposition front bench will lose its most effective Parliamentary debater. If Labour will be weakened in Parliament, it will be equally weakened in the country ; for the Executive's decision will antagonise those inside and outside the party who sympathised with Sir Stafford's heretical appeal to co-operate in creating a movement capable of providing an alternative Government. They will also be confirmed in their opinion that the Labour Executive, despite their brave assertions, neither hope nor desire to take power. The Labour mandarins now stand high and dry on a platform of pure Socialism, which there is not the smallest visible prospect of realising. But since this is so, Sir Stafford's severance from the Party was inevitable. An executive, like a Cabinet, must be united in essentials. One or two resignations may follow the expul- sion, and Sir Stafford Cripps may secure considerable support in the country. His weakness is that the chief plank in his policy—the overthrow of the present Govern- ment—is not a policy at all, but a method.
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