Former London mayor Ken Livingstone said yesterday he regretted a row over anti-Semitism that has rocked Britain’s opposition Labour party, but refused to withdraw comments linking Hitler to Zionism.
“I really regret saying it because it has caused all this eruption,” the veteran politician told LBC radio, amid a controversy that threatens to damage Labour’s chances ahead of regional elections next week.
But he said Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had made similar remarks, adding: “I never regret saying something that is true.”
Livingstone was suspended from the centre-left party on Thursday after saying Hitler initially wanted to move Jews to Israel, and “was supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews”.
His comments came in defence of Labour lawmaker Naz Shah, who was suspended on Wednesday in the face of widespread criticism for sharing anti-Semitic posts on social media two years ago.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has announced an independent review into racism in the party as the seeks to contain the row ahead of elections for devolved assemblies in Scotland and Northern Ireland and the London mayor next week.
Livingstone, a long-time ally of Corbyn who was mayor from 2000 to 2008, denied he was anti-Semitic, insisting: “My entire time in politics has been defending minorities.”
He accused “embittered” Labour MPs who disliked Corbyn, a long-time socialist who was elected last year, of trying to whip up the row to undermine his authority.
“The real appalling thing here is dishonest MPs who know that what I have said is true and stood up all this nonsense because they want to damage our chances at the local election, so they have a chance of undermining Jeremy,” Livingstone said.
In a speech to the World Zionist Congress in October, Netanyahu suggested Hitler was not planning to exterminate the Jews, but expel them, until he met the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini, a Palestinian nationalist, in 1941.
The comments were widely criticised, and Netanyahu later insisted he had no intention of exonerating Hitler.
More than 80 Jewish members or supporters of Labour wrote a letter to the Guardian newspaper yesterday, denying that anti-Semitism was rife in the party.
“The tiny number of cases of real anti-Semitism need to be dealt with, but we are proud that the Labour party historically has been in the forefront of the fight against all forms of racism,” they wrote.
Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn - a close ally of party veteran Livingstone - said in a statement that he would propose a new code of conduct explicitly banning anti-Semitism and other forms of racism.
“There is no place for anti-Semitism or any form of racism in the Labour party, or anywhere in society,” he said.
Labour suspended Livingstone on Thursday after he said Hitler was “supporting Zionism” when he proposed in 1932 that Jews be moved to Israel. Livingstone served as mayor from 2000 to 2008.
Labour has been struggling to pull together after Corbyn, from the party’s hard-left, swept into the leadership in September on a wave of enthusiasm among younger members for change and an end to ‘establishment politics’.
Polls suggest Labour’s current candidate for London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, is on course to defeat his Conservative opponent Zac Goldsmith on May 5, but that Labour risks losing ground in a series of elections elsewhere in Britain.
British media reported again yesterday that Corbyn could face a leadership challenge if the results are especially bad.
Goldsmith, in a BBC radio interview on Saturday, said Khan was “part of the same movement in the Labour party” as Livingstone and had not been clear enough in his condemnation of anti-semitism until recent weeks.
“You need to be very clear on these issues not to ride two horses. Until the mayoral campaign began, Sadiq Khan has not been anything like as clear on this issue as he has been in recent weeks,” Goldsmith said.
Khan called Livingstone’s remarks about Hitler appalling and pressed for him to be suspended.
Labour’s inquiry into anti-semitism will be led by Shami Chakrabarti, the former head of civil rights charity Liberty. She will consult Jewish and other minority groups on what counts as anti-Semitism and racism, and how to deal with allegations.
Former BNP leader Nick Griffin yesterday appeared to back Ken Livingstone’s controversial comments on Adolf Hitler as Labour’s anti-Semitism storm continued.
Far-right activist Griffin spoke out on Twitter after former the former mayor of London was suspended by Labour.
Livingstone appeared to win support from Griffin, who tweeted a message which seemed to back the former Mayor’s argument.
“Hitler started war wanting to send all Jews to own homeland outside Europe & armed Zionist terrorists to fight Brits in Palestine. #RedKen,” he wrote.
Griffin then tweeted a message in quotation marks reading: “One day the world will know that #RedKen was right”.