Moderate Labour MPs fear deselection plot at party conference after union boss Len McCluskey seen with left wing agitator

UNITE union boss Len McCluskey stoked deselection fears for moderate Labour MPs after he was spotted openly plotting with left wing agitator Derek Hatton.

The face of Militant was booted out of the party in 1986 after leading a hard left takeover attempt against then leader Neil Kinnock.

And the hard lefty said he had recently spoken with Jeremy Corbyn and he had been “very welcoming”.

The pair were spotted in Liverpool’s Hilton hotel lunching in full view of other delegates, prompting one MP to brand the lunch “a sinister bromance”.

The moderate MP told The Sun: “A fine bromance with two ex-Millies. Meanwhile millions of Labour voters walk out the door."

Mr Hatton was the former deputy leader of Liverpool City Council but was expelled from the Labour Party in 1986 for his role in the Militant Tendency movement.

Speaking to the BBC today he hinted that he was trying to rejoin.

And he has not given up his dream of a hard left party, adding: “A lot of the principles and ideas that were around in the eighties are starting to emerge again which is a very positive thing.”

He warned that the vicious deselection battles of the 1980s could return, claiming: “An MP has got to remember that they became a Labour Member of Parliament because they stood for Labour, they didn’t get elected because they are an individual.”

He added: “Therefore they have a duty to the party generally - and you would expect and hope that those constituency MPs would go along with the line of their constituency party.”

As boss of the UK’s largest trade union, Len McCluskey is one Jeremy Corbyn’s most powerful backers.

Today he claimed moderate MPs who could not support Mr Corbyn should “clear the battlefield”.