In 1943 Sheehy Skeffington was expelled from the Labour Party, the reasons for which was often disputed. The Irish historian Diarmaid Ferriter suggests he was expelled for engaging in a public spat with a Catholic Priest over the nature of Socialism. Other sources suggest Communists in Dublin, who had entered the Labour Party under the doctrine of entryism, had ousted him because they perceived him to be veering towards Trotskyism. Others, such as Noel Browne, suggested he had been expelled for "simply being too liberal". Sheehy Skeffington did refer him to himself as a "Liberal Socialist", which in more present times might be best understood to mean a proponent of Left-libertarianism.