Ken Livingstone 'jumped before he was pushed'
The former London mayor has done his old friend Jeremy Corbyn a "huge favour" by cutting ties with Labour, Sky's Jon Craig says.
Tuesday 22 May 2018 22:44, UK
It was more than two years ago, on 28 April 2016, that Ken Livingstone declared in an interview that Adolf Hitler "was supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews".
He was being interviewed by the Jewish radio presenter Vanessa Feltz and defended the Labour MP Naz Shah, who had been accused of anti-Semitism and suspended from the Labour Party.
He said her Facebook postings, which had landed her in trouble, were "rude and over-the-top" but not anti-Semitic, and said he had never encountered anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.
:: Former London mayor Ken Livingstone resigns from Labour Party
Mr Livingstone, former leader of the Greater London Council, ex-MP, London mayor from 2000 to 2008, darling of the London metropolitan left and Jeremy Corbyn's closest left-wing ally, was then himself suspended.
Many Labour MPs - backed by the leaders of Jewish organisations - have reacted to his resignation by claiming he should have been thrown out of Labour there and then and that he is leaving the party two years too late.
Indeed, anybody else accused of anti-Semitism probably would have been.
But Mr Corbyn and Mr Livingstone are not just old comrades. They are veteran political soul-mates who have spent nearly half a century fighting unfashionable and controversial causes together.
In the 1980s, they led the so-called "loony left" and appeared to regard the label as a badge of honour.
They supported Sinn Fein together, inviting Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness to the House of Commons and Labour Party conferences, for which they were attacked and accused of being sympathetic to the IRA's campaign of violence.
And as leading figures in Stop the War and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, they opposed not just the 2003 Iraq War together but every other military conflict supported by UK prime ministers from Margaret Thatcher to David Cameron.
Some Labour MPs are surprised that Mr Corbyn has allowed his old friend to part company with the Labour Party.
Predictably, the Labour leader reacted by saying his resignation was sad, but the right thing to do.
But Mr Livingstone has done his friend Mr Corbyn a huge favour.
He is right that his suspension and the disciplinary process he was about to face had become a distraction.
He's probably also correct that further disciplinary action against him could drag on for months or even years. So the inescapable conclusion is that Mr Livingstone has jumped before he was pushed.
After left-wing activist Marc Wadsworth was expelled for bringing the party intro disrepute for comments towards the Labour MP Ruth Smeeth a few weeks ago, the disciplinary panel would probably had found against "Red Ken" too.
Critics of Mr Corbyn claimed earlier this year that he had hounded out Labour's former general secretary Iain McNicol, awarded a peerage on the eve of the Royal Wedding last week, and that his replacement, former Unite official Jennie Formby, was a stooge.
But to be fair to the new general secretary, in the short time since she succeeded Mr McNicol both Marc Wadsworth and now Mr Livingstone have gone, suggesting she has made a swift impact and confounding those critics who claim the Labour leadership has failed to tackle anti-Semitism.
Mr Livingstone had form on Hitler long before the Vanessa Feltz interview two years ago, however.
More than a decade ago, he asked a Jewish reporter from London's Evening Standard: "Were you a German war criminal?"
After his 2016 comments about Hitler, Mr Livingstone incensed Labour MPs who had called for his expulsion from the party by repeatedly defending his claim, saying there had been "real collaboration" between Nazis and Zionists before the Second World War.
As a result, his one-year suspension was extended by another year.
It was then that the Labour MP John Mann confronted the former London mayor in front of reporters in Westminster, accusing him of being a "Nazi apologist".
Mr Mann, who chairs parliament's All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism, chased Mr Livingstone up the stairs at the Westminster offices of Sky News, shouting and calling him a "f****** disgrace", which resulted in extraordinary TV pictures showing the clash.
This year, the anti-Semitism row in the Labour Party has become more damaging.
An unprecedented demonstration by Jewish organisations, supported by dozens of Labour MPs, filled Parliament Square and there was evidence that the row robbed Labour of taking control of Barnet Council in the elections on 3 May.
After the Parliament Square demonstration, the leaders of the same organisations held a meeting with Mr Corbyn in Westminster, but immediately dismissed the talks as a missed opportunity.
The first demand of these Jewish groups - and the so-called "moderate" Labour MPs who joined them in Parliament Square in March - was the expulsion of Mr Livingstone from the party.
Some of Mr Livingstone's strongest critics are disappointed that he was not put through the formal disciplinary procedure and expelled, claiming that would have made his return to the party impossible, while resignation leaves the door slightly ajar.
In his resignation statement, Mr Livingstone said he recognised he had caused offence and upset in the Jewish community. "I am truly sorry for that," he said.
But he said he does not accept the allegation that he has brought the Labour Party into disrepute, nor guilty of anti-Semitism. That suggests he is unrepentant and remains defiant.
Mr Livingstone has, of course, quit the Labour Party before, when he stood as candidate for London mayor as an independent after he was denied the Labour nomination by a plot by Tony Blair to install Frank Dobson instead.
Four years later he was back in the Labour fold, though, after a humiliating climbdown by Mr Blair, who declared tongue-in-cheek: "I always said that Ken would make a good mayor."
Now Mr Livingstone is 72 and spends most of his time walking his golden Labrador Coco and looking after his pet newts - it's less likely there will be a way back into the party for him this time.