Peter Law has said he will support the expelled Labour members

Twenty of Mr Law's supporters are due to receive expulsion letters from Labour's national executive committee.

Mr Law left Labour before defeating the party in Blaenau Gwent, previously its safest seat in Wales.

Welsh Labour said the party members appeared to have acted in ways which excluded them from membership.

Mr Law, who is also Welsh assembly member for Blaenau Gwent, stood against Labour over the party leadership's use of an all-women shortlist to choose a candidate to replace retiring MP Llew Smith.

The people who they are talking about throwing out are hard-working people with many years of service Peter Law MP

He overturned a 19,000 Labour majority to defeat Labour candidate Maggie Jones by more than 9,000 votes.

Last week Secretary of State for Wales Peter Hain said there was no "witch hunt" against Mr Law or "vendetta" against his supporters, but the party moved on Thursday to expel 20 of them.

Mr Law told BBC Radio Wales on Friday: "I am surprised that they've decided to shoot from the hip two weeks after the election when they've just had a drubbing in the polls, losing the safest Labour seat in Wales.

"The people who they are talking about throwing out are hard-working people with many years of service, the people who walk the streets to make Labour the success it's been in the past.

"I think it's a disgrace and quite ridiculous."

Mr Law won a crushing victory in Blaenau Gwent

Mr Law said he would try to support the individuals expelled.

"I'll support them in any tangible way I can," he said.

"I don't even know the names on the list yet. I've even been told my own daughter's there - if that's the case then I'm very proud of her.

"I want to make it a big public issue, because people need to know that these good people who stood up for our integrity are being targeted and being intimidated by the brute force of the Labour Party and that is totally unacceptable."

'Huge popularity'

Mr Law added: "Labour will bring the roof in on itself. They've just lost the safest seat in Wales, what else have they got to learn here?"

His election agent Dai Davies said expelling lifelong Labour supporters could create more problems for the party.

He added: "It will not just affect the people who've been expelled, but it could actually drive others out of the party.

"Peter's popularity, as you've seen by the vote itself, is huge. Heavy handedness is not the way to deal with it."

Long-term Blaenau Gwent Labour member Barbara Chislet said: "I think it's absolutely disgusting that they've expelled people for supporting Peter Law.

"(They should have) not given us an all-women shortlist and this wouldn't have happened.

"The should have sat down, discussed it, and decided where we go from there, but they didn't they just went 'that's it, you're all out'.

"I don't know what the Labour Party's coming to - it's not the Labour Party that we knew."

The Wales Labour Party said on Thursday that 20 members in Blaenau Gwent had appeared to have acted in ways which lead to automatic expulsion.

A spokeswoman added that the constituency Labour Party had been advised that unless the members concerned disputed the facts of why they were being expelled, they should not be allowed to take part in any further meetings of the party.