Jeremy Corbyn admitted that yesterday was “not a happy day”. Today, he announces his intention to set up an independent inquiry into claims of antisemitism within the party, my colleagues Heather Stewart and Anushka Asthana reveal.
We’re going to shut this live blog down now.
The Guardian’s political editors Anushka Asthana and Heather Stewart have interviewed Jeremy Corbyn on the day he had to suspend his close friend and ally Ken Livingstone. This is the full piece, from conversations in his Westminster office, to the campaigning day in Grimsby as the crisis unfolded.
I’m handing over to my colleague Kevin Rawlinson now. Thanks very much for reading.
Updated
Significantly smaller in number, a counter-petition has now begun on Change.org to get Labour MP John Mann a knighthood. It’s a response to one calling for him to be suspended for his public confrontation with Livingstone yesterday, where he called the ex-mayor a “Nazi apologist”.
The petition, which has under 100 names, was started by Andrew Gilbert of the London Jewish Forum, and has been signed by MP Wes Streeting and Jewish Chronicle editor Stephen Pollard, among others.
Jeremy Corbyn MP: John Mann should be recommended for a knighthood for his campaign against Anti-Se... https://t.co/G9i2cwfOkW via @UKChange
— Andrew Gilbert (@AndrewGilbert1) April 29, 2016
This has to be signed. Really. I don't go in for petitions. But I've signed this https://t.co/rw42QWgkOc
— Stephen Pollard (@stephenpollard) April 29, 2016
Earlier today, Ken Livingstone said anyone who wanted to know his views on his suspension would only be able to speak to him via his LBC phone-in show on Saturday. (He even at one point jokingly points at his dog and says ‘Coco attack!’ when reporters push him to respond).
Latest: Ken Livingstone spoke to reporters today after being suspended by Labour over anti-Semitism row comments https://t.co/r2RoQqnVLG
— Sky News (@SkyNews) April 29, 2016
He has now, in fact, given two interviews since then but that might be just as well because LBC now says it has decided to suspend the show because of the imminent election.
An LBC spokesperson said:
This decision was based on Ofcom Rule 6.6 which states that ‘representatives of permitted participants’ cannot present during the election/referendum period, which started on 15th April.
Ken Livingstone meets the definition of a ‘representative of permitted participants’, so he is taking a break from co-presenting his LBC show during this time.
Updated
Labour’s leadership needs to act “much more swiftly” to deal with incidents of antisemitic behaviour, Sadiq Khan has said.
The party’s mayoral candidate, who rushed to distance himself from Livingstone yesterday, has been speaking to the Press Association. He is really driving home the message that Londoners should vote for him, not any association he might have with Corbyn or Livingstone, on May 5.
It’s my name on the ballot paper, not Ken Livingstone’s, not Jeremy Corbyn’s, not David Cameron’s or Boris Johnson’s, and with the greatest respect to the other candidates, it’s a choice between Zac Goldsmith and me.
I’m my own man. I’m nobody’s patsy. I’ve been quite clear from day one it’s my name on the ballot paper.
There will be times when I work closely with the leadership of my party - Jeremy Corbyn as a London MP understands the housing crisis and is passionate about reducing inequality. Other times, we will disagree.
Khan has said that Labour party members who crossed the line into antisemitism needed to be dealt with quicker.
This isn’t the first incident in recent weeks where Labour party members have said things that are clearly anti-Semitic and we should be acting far more swiftly in those cases.
The comments from Ken Livingstone are appalling and disgusting and there should be no place in the Labour Party for anyone with those views. Racism is racism. There should be no hierarchy when it comes to racism and nobody with these views should be in our party.
Updated
Afternoon summary
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Ken Livingstone has said he will fight his Labour party suspension, by producing evidence for his claims yesterday that Hitler supported Zionism. The former mayor, who was suspended yesterday by close ally Jeremy Corbyn, said he had been saying the same thing for thirty years, and could not have given offence.
How can the truth be an offence? If I had lied that would be offensive. I suspect most of the pro-Israel Labour MPs have no idea about the history, they certainly don’t teach about 1930s Zionist policy in Israeli schools … almost everyone in the Jewish community grows up in complete ignorance of this.
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Jeremy Corbyn cancelled a campaigning visit to Wales over fears it would be dominated by the Livingstone furore. Welsh First Minister Carwyn Jones denied he had asked the party leader to stay away, contrary to some reports, and said it was a decision taken by Corbyn’s office. But he said they would not reschedule a Corbyn trip before the election on Thursday, because of lack of time.
There’s no question of me having banned him from Wales. I don’t have the power to do that, of course. Yesterday we saw what happened with Ken Livingstone. We knew that if he came today the day would be entirely about Ken Livingstone and we’re here to spend a day talking about the Welsh election on Thursday.
- Almost 10,000 people have signed a petition, started by a Labour member, calling on the party to suspend Labour MP John Mann, who confronted Livingstone in angry scenes yesterday, where he called him a “Nazi apologist”. Kate Hillier’s Change.org petition castigates Mann for “appallingly unprofessional and toxic behaviour” and accuses him of bringing the Labour party into disrepute. Mann has been disciplined by the whips’ office but not suspended.
- LBC has said that Ken Livingstone is not due to be presenting his usual slot on Saturday, telling the Guardian that is down to Ofcom broadcasting rules in place for the duration of the European referendum. Krishnan Guru-Murthy, the Channel 4 News presenter, has questioned whether Ken Livingstone should continued to be paid to act as a presenter by the national talk radio station.
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Jon Lansman, the left-wing Labour activist who ran Corbyn’s leadership campaign and is now chair of Momentum, called for Livingstone to retire from political life.
But he also said that he felt Labour’s opponents were deliberately digging up trouble, saying: “There are people at Conservative head office who have been trawling Twitter feeds and Facebook pages looking for evidence, stored until a week before the local elections.”
- The Jewish Labour movement, an organisation officially affiliated with the party, has called for Livingstone to be expelled. The group had previously praised Naz Shah’s apology for her Facebook posts, saying she was a brave politician who was on a journey.
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Labour MPs today have also been adding their voices to the calls to expel Livingstone permanently. Birmingham MP Jess Philips said Livingstone “appears incapable of contrition.”
That is why he must be thrown out of the Labour party. He is so certain he is right about everything, he won’t come close to change. He has got away with it again and again, bolstering his confidence each time.
- Nigel Farage, in a speech focussed on Europe and security, did not resist the opportunity to take aim at Labour’s problems. “No longer are we the party accused of harbouring extremists,” Farage said.
Petition to suspend John Mann nears 10,000
A Labour member who has garnered close to 10,000 signatures for a petition calling on the party to discipline MP John Mann for the way he confronted Ken Livingstone has said that she fully expects the former London mayor to be “back on board” after an investigation into his comments.
Kate Hillier’s Change.org petition castigates Mann for “appallingly unprofessional and toxic behaviour” and accuses him of bringing the Labour party into disrepute.
The petition, which will be delivered to Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, had attracted more than 9,500 signatures by 4pm on Friday.
Hillier, who described herself as a long-term Labour supporter who had drifted away but then rejoined in time to vote for Jeremy Corbun during its leadership contest, said that she had been “shocked” by the behaviour of Mann, who was called in to the Labour whip’s office on Thursday after his high-profile confrontation with Livingstone.
Asked about the wider controversy surrounding allegations of anti-semitism within Labour, she told the Guardian:
There is of course problems with this anti-Semitism stuff which is going on, but it is quite confusing. I don’t really understand it all.
Referring to Livingstone’s own comments about the role of Hitler and Jews in Germany during his rule, she added:
This particular piece of legislation he is talking about from Nazi Germany.. if that is a fact, then I think we can’t be afraid to talk about historical facts, unless it is dubious of course.
She added of other allegedly antisemitic comments by Labour figures:
There have been some silly ones obviously but it feels like it’s getting to a point where you can’t say anything. You can’t criticise a political regime because you are going to be branded a racist.
Updated
Ian Saville, a Labour member who founded the pro-Corbyn group Jews for Jeremy, has been speaking on BBC News.
He said he did believe that Labour had an anti-Semitism problem more than any other party, giving the example of Aidan Burley, the former Tory MP, who was photographed in a Nazi uniform costume.
There is always going to be some anti-semitism in a party of half a million members. I don’t think it is a major problem. We have situations in the Tory party where an MP was dresses in Nazi regalia.
Saville said Livingstone had said something “unwise” but said it was important not to conflate criticism of Israel or Zionism with a hatred of Jews.
He didn’t come down on the side of Hitler. It was a stupid thing to say ‘Hitler only did what he did before he went mad’. But there were some Zionists that tried to make a deal with the Nazi party.
Jones: Ken lives in the London bubble, he wouldn't have considered elections
The Welsh Labour leader, Carwyn Jones has rejected claims that he “banned” Jeremy Corbyn from joining him on the assembly election campaign trail.
The idea of a UK Labour leader not joining a campaign in one of the party’s traditional strongholds would have once been inconceivable.
Jones told the Guardian:
The decision [for the visit to be cancelled] was taken yesterday. There’s no question of me having banned him from Wales. I don’t have the power to do that, of course.
Yesterday we saw what happened with Ken Livingstone. We knew that if he came today the day would be entirely about Ken Livingstone and we’re here to spend a day talking about the Welsh election on Thursday.
On Livingstone’s comments and suspension, he said:
Enough’s enough. How many times is he going to do this? He knew exactly what he was doing yesterday. This is not somebody who is inexperienced. It was deliberate.
Asked if Livingstone would have even known an election was on. Jones said:
No – he lives in the London bubble, [he] wouldn’t have thought about the elections elsewhere.
Welsh Labour has mixed views over whether Corbyn is positive or negative for their campaign. Ahead of the campaign, Jones told the Guardian Welsh Labour would attempt to distance itself from the UK party and the infighting that has blighted Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership during its campaign.
On Friday, he said Corbyn was playing better now.
On the doorstep it’s fair to say we get mixed views. Fewer people are raising him as an issue and the reaction is more mixed. Some months ago the reaction was more negative. Not now – it’s much more balanced.
Updated
Jamie Reed, the Labour MP for Copeland, has written an emotional blog for centrist Labour pressure group Progress.
The Labour party can, and at some point will, become a national movement again. Doing so will require the abandonment of both exceptionalism and the corruption of language.
Nowhere can these destructive practices be seen more clearly than through the events leading up to and following the suspension of Naz Shah MP from the Labour benches this week.
Having made appalling and unacceptable comments about Israel and the Jewish people, Naz apologized with a statement and also, uncommonly, in the House of Commons. The apology appeared to be both genuine and sincere. Prior to this a party spokesperson was asked whether or not Naz was, in fact an antisemite. The spokesman responded ‘We’re not saying she’s anti-Semitic, we’re saying she’s made remarks that she doesn’t agree with.’
This explanation represents exceptionalism of the worst kind and a truly appalling corruption of language and logic.
As I did after our general election defeat, this week I again apologise to every man, woman and child in our nation who needs a Labour government. In a poisoned environment of debased meaning, I have no other words than these: I am truly sorry and my heart is breaking.
Updated
The leader of Labour’s sister party in Israel has said his party was on “red alert” over the number of incidents plaguing UK Labour.
Labor leader Isaac Herzog told BBC Radio 4’s The World at One that he did not believe the views “symbolise the majority of the British Labour party.”
It’s a red alert that comes from within the body politic of the British Labour party.
However, this collection of recent events in a short time span show it has to be treated and I would focus not only on the political side but also on educating, explaining the issues at stake before people say such horrific things.
Updated
Conor Pope, senior reporter at Labour List, points out Livingstone is now in his third day of causing chaos for Labour.
That puts us in a position where, logically, the only way his membership can be reinstated is if the Labour Party endorses his comments.
— Conor Pope (@Conorpope) April 29, 2016
'How can the truth be an offence?' - Livingstone
More here from Livingstone’s latest interview with Sky News.
How can the truth be an offence? If I had lied that would be offensive
On the history of Hitler and Zionism
I suspect most of the pro-Israel Labour MPs have no idea about the history, they certainly don’t teach about 1930s Zionist policy in Israeli schools … almost everyone in the Jewish community grows up in complete ignorance of this.
Over here, they don’t teach it in schools either.
On the controversial work of American Marxist historian Lenni Brenner
He came to Britain to publicise his book and we did a public meeting together.
The shocking thing about his book was that he revealed that not only Hitler had wanted to move all of Germany’s Jews to Israel, but that the Zionist leadership continued a dialogue privately with Hitler from ‘33 when he became Chancellor from 1940-41.
I’ll just produce the evidence and I mean it’s hard for somebody to decide to suspend me from the party here when all this was there 30 years ago in the public domain and nobody raised a peep.
On equating Zionism and Nazism
Political leaders need to suck up to nasty people all the time, I mean David Cameron has to suck up to the Saudi royal family all the time, as Blair did. They are an abhorrent regime.
Updated
The New Statesman’s George Eaton has this from Labour MPs mulling whether a leadership challenge to Corbyn is now more probable.
Labour MPs on why a leadership challenge to Corbyn has become more likely https://t.co/21aB8mqeOq pic.twitter.com/8a5elwmh1o
— George Eaton (@georgeeaton) April 29, 2016
Lunchtime summary
- Ken Livingstone has vowed to fight for his position in the party at the Labour party inquiry, saying he has been making the claims about Hitler and Zionism for 30 years. Livingstone originally said he would not speak about his suspension until his LBC show on Saturday, but then spoke to both Sky News and the Evening Standard.
Everything I said yesterday was true and I will be presenting the academic book about that to the Labour Party inquiry.
- Jeremy Corbyn has cancelled his scheduled campaigning with Welsh Labour leader Carwyn Jones in Bridgend, which the party says was Corbyn’s call, and not a ‘ban’ by Jones. The Labour leader is now unlikely to visit before the election on Thursday.
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Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader, said Corbyn acted as swiftly as possible to suspend his close friend.
It wasn’t easy for Jeremy Corbyn yesterday. Ken Livingstone is a 40-year ally of Jeremy and what he did was act swiftly. In fact, I don’t think he could have moved any quicker to deal with Ken Livingstone.
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Jon Lansman, the founder of the pro-Corbyn Momentum group, said that Livingstone should retire from politics and from Labour’s NEC. But he also pointed out that social media sites were being trawled by Labour’s opponents.
I don’t think Labour has a particular problem with antisemitism. I think society has a problem with anti-semitism. I think there are people with certain interests stoking this row.
There are people at Conservative head office who have been trawling Twitter feeds and Facebook pages looking for evidence, stored until a week before the local elections.
- Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader, used a speech about European security and immigration to make a sly dig at Labour’s current turmoil. “No longer are we the party accused of harbouring extremists,” he said.
- LBC has come under criticism for allowing Livingstone to continue to present his weekly programme with David Mellor. The broadcaster said Michael Crick would replace Livingstone on the programme this week, but claimed that was down to Ofcom rules on impartiality pre-election.
Updated
Welsh Labour says it is unlikely Corbyn will now have time to come to Wales after visit cancelled
Welsh Labour leader Carwyn Jones has said there probably won’t be time now for Corbyn to join him on campaign trail before election day.
Welsh Labour had previously said they were attempting to reschedule the visit that was cancelled for fear of a media storm that might detract from their Welsh assembly election campaigning.
Welsh first minister Carwyn Jones on election trail - but no Jeremy Corbyn. pic.twitter.com/TExFKSMt4i
— steven morris (@stevenmorris20) April 29, 2016
Updated
Welsh Labour members received this message this afternoon on Corbyn’s visit cancellation, signed by Welsh Labour leader and first minister Carwyn Jones, denying he had prevented Corbyn’s visit.
You may have seen some reports today about Jeremy Corbyn’s planned visit to Wales being cancelled. Whilst that is the case, it is not right to say there is a ‘bar’ on Jeremy coming to Wales. His office have said as much this morning.
There are incredibly serious issues for Jeremy to deal with in Westminster, and it is right and in the interests of the UK Party that he stays there today and sorts this out. I give him my support in getting to grips with that today and commend him on the action he took yesterday.
In Wales, our campaign for a Welsh Labour government delivering on jobs, the NHS and good schools standards continues. Those are the things Jeremy spoke about when he came to our conference in February.
Let me say one thing on yesterday’s news. I called for Ken Livingstone to be expelled from Labour, because the views he expressed were not only offensive, but they give license to intolerance in our schools and our communities.
My colleague Steve Morris is currently out following Jones on the campaign trail in Bridgend and will have a report from that imminently.
Updated
Jeremy Corbyn is not feeling particularly talkative this morning.
Jeremy Corbyn has no comment when asked what he intends to do about accusations of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party https://t.co/guqNXzPTpt
— Sky News (@SkyNews) April 29, 2016
The Guardian’s political editor Anushka Asthana was on the campaign trail with Jeremy Corbyn in Grimsby and Hull as the chaos unfolded on Thursday afternoon. Here’s the video of the day, which started with fans clamouring for selfies and ends as Corbyn suspends Livingstone saying he will not tolerate anti-Semitism.
“It’s not a happy day,” he says. “He made remarks that were unacceptable and a lot of people complained about it.
“Obviously [I’m upset] because I’ve had to suspend people from the party, it’s not my wish to do that but I think if people are making remarks that are unacceptable I have to do it.”
Updated
Livngstone - I made Hitler link to Zionism 30 years ago
Ken Livingstone has told Sky News he would tell the Labour inquiry that he has been making the connection between Adolf Hitler and Zionism for 30 years, since he first read a book on the link.
Livingstone, who earlier said he would not make any comment until tomorrow but has since spoken to both the Evening Standard and now Sky News, repeated his claim that it was accurate to say Hitler had been a Zionist.
He told Sky News’ political correspondent Tamara Cohen, in an interview that has not been broadcast, that most MPs were not aware of the history because “they don’t teach it in Israeli schools”.
EXC Interview with Ken Livingstone online soon: says party inquiry has to let him back in bcos he first made his Hitler claims 30 years ago
— Tamara Cohen (@tamcohen) April 29, 2016
EXC Livingstone: 'I suspect most pro-Israel MPs have no idea about the history. They don't teach 1930s Zionist policy in Israeli schools'
— Tamara Cohen (@tamcohen) April 29, 2016
LBC has said that Ken Livingstone is not due to be presenting his usual slot on Saturday, telling the Guardian that was down to Ofcom broadcasting rules in place for the duration of the European referendum.
Krishnan Guru-Murthy, the Channel 4 News presenter, has questioned whether Ken Livingstone should continued to be paid to act as a presenter by national talk radio station LBC following the comments which have led to his suspension by the Labour party.
Guru-Murthy’s challenge to LBC came as the former London mayor said he would limit his comments on the furore surrounding his interventions in Labour’s antisemitism row, telling reporters outside his London home today that they would have to “tune in” to him on the radio station on Saturday.
Livingstone says no more on Hitler until his radio show. Is LBC entirely comfortable paying him as a presenter after what he said yesterday?
— Krishnan Guru-Murthy (@krishgm) April 29, 2016
However, on Saturday, the presenting place on the show is being filled instead by Michael Crick, a Channel 4 News journalist who happens to have been among the members of the press closely questioning Livingstone after he was surrounded by reporters on Thursday.
Crick will present alongside David Mellor, the former Tory MP and minister, although it remains a possibility that Livingstone would appear on the show as a guest.
Guru-Murthy agreed that it was a “good point” when others on Twitter pointed out to him that LBC had given a show to the controversial newspaper columnist Katie Hopkins.
When Hopkins appeared as a guest presenter on the station a year ago she found herself under fire from listeners over a Sun column in which she compared migrants to “cockroaches”.
Updated
This is the front page story of the Western Mail, which suggests Jeremy Corbyn has cancelled campaigning in Wales after advice from Labour Welsh first minister Carwyn Jones, though there is some dispute as to whether Corbyn is merely rescheduling his visit rather than being told to stay away altogether.
Friday's Western Mail front page:
— Nick Sutton (@suttonnick) April 28, 2016
Carwyn bars Corbyn#tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/JOUgUSz9zC
Corbyn was due to visit Bridgend College in Pencoed, but the Western Mail report that Jones’ team did not want the distraction of recent days’ events to overshadow Welsh Labour campaigning in the Welsh assembly elections.
Jones called for Ken Livingstone to be expelled from the Labour party on Thursday, saying the former London mayor knew his comments would be damaging so close to the election.
He told BBC Wales: “He knew exactly what he was doing he knew how harmful it would be with an election coming next week in different parts of the UK - he has to pay the price.”
We’ll try and get more on exactly what’s happening with this.
Updated
Labour MP Jess Phillips has written on the Guardian’s Comment is Free about why Labout must permanently expel Livingstone.
Ken Livingstone appears incapable of contrition. That is why he must be thrown out of the Labour party. He is so certain he is right about everything, he won’t come close to change. He has got away with it again and again, bolstering his confidence each time.
He has a well-worn flak jacket leading him to be a repeat offender, leaving almost no one unharmed by his shrapnel. Jewish people, decent members of the Labour party, the mentally ill, mild-mannered people from south London all bear the wounds.
If and when he has made apologies, they are often delivered too late and are mealy-mouthed, and the worst of all apologies is the one that takes no responsibility for their actions.
Here’s the full piece:
Livingstone - Everything I said is true
The Evening Standard’s Joe Murphy has spoken briefly to Ken Livingstone this morning, who says he will stand by his comments.
Everything I said yesterday was true and I will be presenting the academic book about that to the Labour party inquiry.
The paper reports that the book Livingstone may be referring is writings by the American Marxist historian Lenni Brenner, who wrote the 2002 book 51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration with the Nazis.
Updated
While Farage has been speaking, Ken Livingstone is still insisting that he will not speak until his LBC show, telling reporters to phone in to the show if they want to ask him questions. There are some reports now however, that Livingstone is not due to present the show because of Ofcom rules about partisanship close to elections. We’re trying to get confirmation.
Ken Livingstone takes Coco for a walk. No comment on his suspension, but said he'd be tending to his newts today pic.twitter.com/yKvNTf8cqs
— Nina Massey (@ninamasseyPA) April 29, 2016
Asked how he would be spending his day, Livingstone said:
Taking Coco for a walk, then I’m coming back to do the washing, then I’m moving the newts and pond weed from my old to my new pond.
I need to move the newts and the old pond is past its sell-by date.
Updated
Though the speech was focused on Europe and security, as well as deep dig at the strategy of his rivals, Farage didn’t miss the opportunity to take aim at Labour’s problems.
"No longer are we the party accused of harbouring extremists," Farage says with a wry smile. pic.twitter.com/nUJfoJFYxz
— Emily Ashton (@elashton) April 29, 2016
Updated
Farage says that German chancellor Angela Merkel’s decision to let in refugees last summer was “one of the worst decisions by a western leader since 1945”
He says the UK could risk being in a “Turkish-dominated Europe” because of ongoing negotiations with the country regarding potential accession.
Farage has finished speaking now.
'@Nigel_Farage "We have to make people understand that this is about taking back control of our borders, our laws and our country"
— LEAVE.EU (@LeaveEUOfficial) April 29, 2016
Updated
Ukip will keep speaking out, even if they are not part of the Vote Leave campaign, he says.
For background, Vote Leave won the electoral commission designation to be the lead campaign, which comes with significant extra spending limits and rights, over the Leave.EU-backed group Grassroots Out, supported by Farage and most of Ukip.
Farage says some on the Leave campaign are not making the immigration case for Brexit because many of them come from “rich and privileged backgrounds who rarely ever dare stray outside the M25”.
This is a strange charge for Farage to level, as Huffington Post’s Owen Bennett points out.
Privately educated former city trader @Nigel_Farage attacking ppl from 'privileged and wealthy backgrounds'. Well I suppose he knows them.
— Owen Bennett (@owenjbennett) April 29, 2016
Updated
Vote Leave rejecting my help - Farage
The Leave campaign has to “get into the other half of the pitch”, Farage says. Migration is the key argument to make he says, and the security and terror threat.
Vote Leave, the official designated campaign, are not making that case, he says.
They don’t appear to have the credible voices to make those arguments. I
If you’ve been part of the cabinet that has seen net migration running at record levels, you’re not best placed to make those arguments.
I tried hard over the course of the weekends to say, we must let bygones be bygones, we want Ukip to work with you.
I’m sorry to say that every time I try to work with them I am rebuffed and rejected.
Farage says the UK will be better off outside the single market, saying food, cars will all be cheaper.
Even if there is no deal with the EU, he says, “the worst case scenario” the total amount of tariffs only equals two-thirds of the UK contribution to the EU.
The Leave campaign has to be “much more assertive in making the economic case”, he says.
EU asylum plan will let in extremists - Farage
Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader is giving a keynote speech for the Leave campaign today at the Emmanuel Centre in London.
He says Barack Obama would not have used the word ‘queue’ to say Britain would be at the back of the queue for trade negotiations because Americans say line. He says he was saying the words David Cameron had asked him to say.
He says that the Leave campaign do have experts backing them, naming “Professor Patrick Minford [a former Thatcher advisor] and others.”
Updated
Wes Streeting, the Labour MP who was one of the first to call for Livingstone to be sacked from the party, spoke to BBC Newsnight.
He called the ex-mayor “a political arsonist who is pouring petrol on a very serious issue.”
"A political arsonist" - @wesstreeting's perfect description of Ken Livingstone pic.twitter.com/bKGZaz89Sw
— Jake Wilde (@Jake_Wilde) April 29, 2016
Updated
The Jewish Labour movement, an organisation officially affiliated with the party, have tweeted a statement comparing Livingstone’s actions to Bradford MP Naz Shah’s. The group had previously praised her apology, saying she was a brave politician who was on a journey.
Following on from yesterday we are calling for Ken Livingstone to be swiftly and permanently expelled from Labour. No more second chances.
— JewishLabourMovement (@JewishLabour) April 29, 2016
We believe that Naz Shah is authentic in her apology. Ken Livingstone denies wrongdoing. This is not a one off. He can no longer be excused.
— JewishLabourMovement (@JewishLabour) April 29, 2016
This was their earlier statement on Shah.
Welcome statement from Jewish Labour Movement (via @juliamacfarlane). Agree with this https://t.co/N6BzAibEwe pic.twitter.com/vFS69JTxSc
— Sunny Hundal (@sunny_hundal) April 27, 2016
Lord Sugar, the former Labour peer and party donor, has told BBC 5 live Breakfast Ken Livingstone was “obsessed” with “Hitler, concentration camps and Jews”.
Lord Sugar: Livingstone's comments "stupid and ignorant"https://t.co/L52LQ9LJq6 pic.twitter.com/mTHFeUWqNB
— BBC Radio 5 live (@bbc5live) April 29, 2016
“Words fail that the person who once had a senior position as mayor of London and a member of the party could be so stupid and ignorant. I think he’s lost the plot,” he said.
He knew it was going to be provocative. One can only think that he purposefully did it. A sensible, intelligent person doesn’t speak like that.
Sugar, who left Labour last year, said he had no faith that the party would effectively tackle the problem. “They’re all peas in the same pod and they’ll wait for it to blow over and find some way of him slipping back into the Labour fold,” he said.
Updated
Ken Livingstone, who said on Thursday he wouldn’t be giving any more broadcast interviews, has been out walking his dog in Cricklewood, north London. And not talking to the press.
Anyone interested in what he had to say would have to “tune in” to him on LBC on Saturday, he told reporters, according to PA.
Updated
George Galloway, a close friend of Livingstone, has been on Sky News, where he said the former mayor had “said absolutely nothing wrong. Everything he said was the truth. Historical fact.”
George Galloway calls Labour anti-Semitism row "an entirely synthetic crisis. Ken Livingstone said nothing wrong" https://t.co/k2ezZlJUg3
— Sky News (@SkyNews) April 29, 2016
Momentum chair - Time for Livingstone to 'move on' but he should not be sacked
Jon Lansman, the leftwing Labour activist who ran Corbyn’s leadership campaign and is now chair of Momentum, has been on the Victoria Derbyshire programme in the last half an hour. On Twitter yesterday, he called for Livingstone to retire from political life.
He spoke to Joanna Gosling, who asked if Livingstone should be expelled permanently.
I didn’t call for him to be suspended, I called for him to retire. The comments were very ill-judged, intemperate, wrong and offensive.
The trouble is that Ken hasn’t really got a role any more but he’s still someone who is invited in to TV studios. He said some things that were very ill-judged and he needs to recognise it’s time for him to move on.
Lansman said the comments by John Mann, that Livingstone was a “Nazi apologist” were “as silly as anything Ken said”. But he said he took great issue with the idea that Hitler had been a Zionist “before he went mad” as Ken put it.
Hitler was always deeply antisemitic, and so I don’t agree with Ken. I don’t think it’s a matter of Hitler going mad. But we also need to recognise that Ken is not an anti-semite or not a Nazi apologist. He did many good things for London.
Lansman says that Livingstone should not be sacked from the Labour party but should “move on” from the national executive committee.
I don’t think Labour has a particular problem with antisemitism. I think society has a problem with anti-semitism. I think there are people with certain interests stoking this row.
There are people at Conservative head office who have been trawling Twitter feeds and Facebook pages looking for evidence, stored until a week before the local elections.
We have very few cases of real anti-semitism, people are exhibiting prejudices. Prejudices are in all of us. We need to acknowledge there is antisemitism in society, in all political parties including the Labour party.
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Tom Watson, Labour’s deputy leader who avoided much of the fray on Thursday, spoke to BBC Radio 4’s Today programme earlier. Corbyn was at a Q&A and a memorial service in Grimsby as calls for Livingstone’s suspension grew.
On Corbyn’s first response to Livingstone’s comments:
I just ask people to take a look at what [Corbyn] actually did yesterday, within hours of Ken Livingstone making those comments.
It wasn’t easy for Jeremy Corbyn yesterday. Ken Livingstone is a 40-year ally of Jeremy and what he did was act swiftly.
In fact, I don’t think he could have moved any quicker to deal with Ken Livingstone.”
On reports that Corbyn’s team had wanted Mann suspended as well:
What I do know is that when issues like this come up in a party, everyone gives leaders advice, very often contradictory advice and ultimately it’s leaders that make the call.
Asked about Corbyn’s meetings with members of Hamas when he was a backbench MP:
When you lead a political party, sometimes you need to take political risks and that might be you talk to people who hold contradictory or offensive views in the pursuit of peace and Jeremy is always going to do that, but if we are in a situation where that creates a perceived culture, or a culture that people are not welcome in the party, then we need to deal with it.
On Jewish Labour party members:
Jews have always played an important role in the Labour party, leading in important positions because of the shared values that we have.
Ken Livingstone's suspension from the Labour party
Good morning, we’re following the aftermath of Labour’s chaotic day which resulted in the suspension of former London mayor Ken Livingstone for a day which began with him telling broadcasters Hitler had been a Zionist, and ended with a slanging match between him and MP John Mann, and the ex-mayor hiding in a disabled toilet, with the waiting press outside.
Livingstone had original been on BBC London to defend Bradford West MP Naz Shah, who has suspended on Wednesday for antisemitic Facebook posts, for which she apologised.
Mann, who called Livingstone a “disgrace” as he confronted him outside the Millbank broadcast studios, was called to a meeting with chief whip Rosie Winterton and told his behaviour was unacceptable. A petition, which has more than 5,800 supporters, is calling for the Bassetlaw MP to also be suspended for bringing the party into disrepute.
On Question Time on Thursday night, shadow home secretary Andy Burnham said the party had to handle these situations better.
These allegations, when they are surfacing, are not being dealt with properly and quickly enough. They need to be dealt with much more speedily in the future.
If I thought for one second that I was a member of an antisemitic party I would cut up my membership card, right here, right now. I don’t believe that is the case.
His predecessor as shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, also criticised the way the debacle had been handled, speaking to Channel 4 News last night.
The Labour party needs to do more than simply to have suspensions of people who have been saying antisemitic things.
We’ve actually got to have an action plan to deal with this in order to have strong processes so that there is swift action because you can never tolerate that kind of discrimination in the party.
Livingstone has said he will give no more interviews until his LBC show on Saturday, which begins at 10am.
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