Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn most senior policy adviser has been suspended following allegations he behaved with contempt towards the party by urging voters to back a Class War candidate.
Andrew Fisher has been under fire since he urged people to back the rival candidate in the London seat of Croydon South at the General Election rather than Labour's Emily Benn.
Although he later apologised, Mr Fisher faced accusations of disloyalty and has now been suspended pending a report to the ruling National Executive Committee.
Channel 4 News reported last night the party said Mr Fisher had been suspended for "administrative" reasons.
Ms Benn, the granddaughter of the late Tony Benn, made a formal complaint about Mr Fisher after he sent a tweet in August last year, which read "FFS if you live in Croydon South, vote with dignity, vote @campaignbeard" - a reference to the Twitter account of Class War parliamentary candidate Jon Bigger.
Labour's rule book states that any member who "supports any candidate who stands against an official Labour candidate... shall automatically be ineligible to be or remain a party member".
Mr Fisher last week wrote to Labour's general secretary Iain McNicol to "completely and unreservedly" apologise for the tweet, which he claimed had been "misinterpreted".
He wrote: "I obviously do not and did not support Class War in any way, let alone in an election. I was and am committed to the election of a Labour government and a successful and united Labour Party."
Mr Fisher continued: "I accept that the tweet has been misinterpreted and has caused embarrassment and understandable upset among party members, which I regret.
"I wish to completely and unreservedly apologise for this tweet. I have now closed my social media accounts and assure you there will be no repetition of such activity in the future."
The message about Croydon South is not the only controversial social media post made by Mr Fisher, who also described Ed Miliband's frontbench as "the most abject collection of complete s***e" and celebrated Ed Balls's general election defeat.
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