Blairite MPs have “whipped up” the row about alleged antisemitism in the Labour Party to undermine Jeremy Corbyn, Ken Livingstone has said.
The former Mayor of London was suspended from his party this week after he referenced Adolf Hitler while defending embattled MP Naz Shah, who was suspended for alleged antisemitism.
Appearing on a regular LBC Radio slot on Saturday morning, Mr Livingstone refused to apologise for what he had said and accused the party’s right wing of hoping to “damage our chances at the local elections” so they could replace Mr Corbyn.
“If you look at what this is all about, it’s not about antisemitism in the Labour party … ” he told the station.
“What this is all about is the struggle of the emitted old Blairite MPs to try and get rid of Jeremy Corbyn. They’ve whipped this issue up.”
Mr Corbyn has struggled to find support among some sections of the Parliamentary Labour Party and there are rumours that his opponents could be considering staging a coup against him.
Mr Livingstone said he was sorry if anyone had been offended and that he regretted bringing Hitler into a conversation about antisemitism.
However he said he would not say sorry for mentioning Hitler “because sorry sounds like I’m apologising for what I said”.
“If anyone’s been upset by this of course I’m sorry about all of that. But the real thing here is dishonest MPs who know what I said is true, have stirred up all this nonsense so they can damage our chances at the local elections so they then had a chance of undermining Jeremy,” he said.
“It’s caused offence because people have distorted it and said this is antisemitic to have said it. They’ve lied in doing that. All my political life I’ve said what I believe to have been true – I’ve occasionally been wrong.”
Mr Livingstone added he would not be doing any more interviews on the subject because Labour needed to move on from the issue and campaign for the local elections. He also said he hoped to be able to stand to retain his seat on Labour's ruling NEC if the issue was resolved before the next round of elections.
Labour's shadow chancellor John McDonnell said Mr Livingstone should have apologised fully for his comments.
“I just wish Ken would have apologised today for some of the offence that he’s caused," he told Sky News on Saturday afternoon.
“I know he said he regrets what he said but I think he should now apologise.”
Addressing Mr Livingstone's claims about Blairites undermining the party leadership, he said: “We’re not sure where this is coming from but let me make this absolutely clear: it doesn’t matter where it’s coming from.
“If there’s any evidence at all of anti-Semitism in our party its unacceptable and we’re going to root it out. We’re going to restore the reputation of the Labour party as an anti-racist force.”
More than 20 Labour MPs have called for Mr Livingstone to be suspended from the party this week, with one, John Mann, repeatedly alleging that he was a “Nazi apologist”.
Following the row, the party has set up an inquiry into alleged antisemitism in the party, chaired by former Liberty head Shami Chakrabati.
