FORMER LONDON MAYOR Ken Livingstone has been suspended from the Labour Party for an additional year following comments he made last year about Adolf Hitler.
Livingstone had been suspended from the party last April for “bringing the party into disrepute” after he made comments defending a Labour MP who had shared anti-Semitic posts on social media.
The Guardian reports that Livingstone – who has been a party member for almost 50 years – was today censured following a hearing Labour’s national constitutional committee.
The committee handed down a two-year suspension for Livingstone, but decided not to expel him outright.
The suspension will expire in April 2018, taking into account the suspension he has already served
Livingstone was caught up in a media controversy after he defended a Labour MP who shared a 2014 Facebook post suggesting Jews could be moved from Israel to the United States.
The post from Naz Shah MP came amid allegations of anti-Semitism in the Jeremy Corbyn-led opposition party and a debate about what constitutes anti-semitism.
While defending the post, Livingstone had argued that Hitler had supported Zionism – the movement for Jewish people to establish a Jewish state in the holy lands where modern-day Israel exists.
Livingstone stated at the time:
When Hitler won his election in 1932, his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews.
Speaking to the BBC outside the hearing today, Livingstone said he had been “suspended for stating the truth”.
“I expected them to expel me so I have now got to consider whether I challenge this legally or just live with it,” he said.
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