Susanna Wilkey THE shamed government aide who resigned after smear emails about top Tories were leaked online is facing expulsion from his local Labour party association of Finchley and Golders Green. Members of the constituency Labour party have announce

Susanna Wilkey

THE shamed government aide who resigned after smear emails about top Tories were leaked online is facing expulsion from his local Labour party association of Finchley and Golders Green.

Members of the constituency Labour party have announced they will vote next month on whether to oust former Downing Street aide, Damian McBride, over his "scandalous" conduct.

He was one of the Prime Minister's closest advisers until he was forced to resign last week over emails which discussed possible content for a new website, called Red Rag, designed to spread malicious gossip about opponents' private lives.

Politicians from across the spectrum have supported his expulsion including Labour MP for Finchley and Golders Green Rudi Vis.

He said: "What he has done is scandalous and I am disgusted by it. He has damaged the Labour party and I do not think we have even heard the whole story of what he planned to do.

"A person who damages the Labour government should not be party to that party he has damaged.

"I have never met him or seen him at any meetings and never spoken to him - I definitely would not have recognised him.

"I did not realise that he lived in the constituency because he has never done a scrap of work or attended a meeting.

"Although the Finchley committee will discuss this at the next meeting the decision has to ultimately be made by a national committee.

"I am a little surprised that we have not been instructed to take him off already."

Mr Vis said he thought Gordon Brown knew nothing about this because "he has a strong sense of right and wrong".

But he did say he thought there should be a change in the culture at No 10.

The Conservative leader of Barnet Council and parliamentary candidate for the constituency Mike Freer totally supports Mr McBride's expulsion from the party.

He said: "Smear campaigns and gutter politics should have no place in the democratic process.

"I am sure the Labour MP for Finchley and Golders Green and the candidate at the next election will be robust in ensuring Mr McBride is not involved in their local campaign."

And Lib Dem Childs Hill councillor Monroe Palmer added: "What he and some of his colleagues did was deplorable and has been quite correctly deplored by different political parties and their spokesman.

"Activities such as these do not enhance politics as a whole and if they do not expel him it will help the other parties because it is saying this is acceptable to the Labour party."

Damian McBride quit his job 10 days ago over leaked emails sent from his Downing Street account to former government spin doctor Derek Draper, who came up with the idea of the Red Rag gossip website.

They contained unfounded allegations about leading Tory MPs, including David Cameron, and were initially dismissed by Downing Street as juvenile and inappropriate.

At the weekend the Prime Minister finally apologised for the scandal and took full responsibility for what happened.

Mr McBride is logged with the local party in Margaret Thatcher's old constituency but no one in the local party claims to have had any dealing with him.