Outrage as Labour let Ken Livingstone off with suspension for sick comments about Hitler and Zionism
The ex-London mayor was not kicked out of the party - despite breaching Labour rules
LABOUR have been slammed after refusing to expel Ken Livingstone for his on air meltdowns about Hitler.
The close ally of hard left party chief Jeremy Corbyn was instead suspended for two years.
And he claimed he was given leniency because of his “long history and contributions to the party”.
The surprise decision came despite Labour bosses finding the ex-Mayor of London guilty on three counts of bringing the party into disrepute.
Britain's Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis slammed the punishment, saying: "This was a chance for the Labour Party to show that it would not tolerate wilful and unapologetic baiting of the Jewish community, by shamefully using the Holocaust as a tool with which to inflict the maximum amount of offence."
"The Labour Party has failed the Jewish community, it has failed its members and it has failed all those who believe in zero tolerance of anti-Semitism."
The 71-year-old sparked uproar in April last year after claiming that the Nazi leader was a Zionist — a supporter of a Jewish homeland — “before he went mad and killed six million Jews”.
Appealing his ban, the veteran socialist argued he had evidence to back up his offensive views — a claim dismissed by historians.
But Labour’s National Constitutional Committee, which heard two days of evidence behind closed doors, squashed his claims and slapped the party grandee with a further 12 month suspension.
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Mr Livingstone said: “I felt the whole thing was like sitting through a court in North Korea.”
However Labour politicians and members slammed the party for not expelling the lefty for good.
Last night the Jewish Labour Movement reacted with fury to the lack of expulsion.
A spokesman said the “one year suspension is insufficient for a party the claims zero tolerance on antisemitism. This is a betrayal of our Party’s values. One year suspension allows for a revolving door for repeat offenders.”
Labour Peer Lord Livermore said: “Ken Livingstone should have been expelled, not merely suspended. His anti-Semitic views have no place in a progressive party.”
Labour MP Wes Streeting blasted the light punishment handed to Mr Livingstone.
He said: “So much for zero tolerance approach to antisemitism - this is a terrible betrayal of Jewish Labour supporters and our values.”
Another Labour MP hit out: “Corbyn’s cronyism is worse than the Tories. Turning a blind eye to anti-Semitism because it’s an old chum is a new low.”
Karen Pollock, CEO of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said: “Ken Livingstone has continued to cause significant pain and great offence to the Jewish community with his persistent rewriting of history.
"We have spent over a year now having to tolerate misinformation and falsehoods about the Holocaust - including during this hearing.
“This verdict is a slap on the wrist for a serial offender. That a mainstream political party would consider these views to be welcome within their ranks simply demonstrates that antisemitism is not taken as seriously as all other forms of racism and prejudice."
Speaking ahead of the crunch showdown with party bosses yesterday morning, Mr Livingstone said the real blame for the row lay with Jewish journalists and anti-Corbyn Labour MPs — causing further public outcry.
He told the BBC: “What caused offence for those people who opened the page of the Jewish Chronicle and saw that the claim that I’d said Hitler was a Zionist.”
Pushed on whether he was blaming the paper, he replied “yes”, adding “not just the Jewish Chronicle, the main cause of this is the Labour MPs who initiated the lie that I’d said Hitler was a Zionist.”
He later claimed Jews had collaborated with the SS to set up Israel — a claim that prompted uproar from Holocaust survivors and campaigners.
And he yesterday he added that “the Gestapo worked with Israeli agents in Mossad”, despite the Nazi murders being defeated 1945 — four years before the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad was founded in 1949.
Last night World War II historian Guy Walters dismissed Mr Livingstone’s warped view of history.
He told The Sun: “Livingstone relies on the thesis of a historian whose work has long raised eyebrows, and who appears to have an agenda that dovetails very neatly with Ken’s worldview.”
Last night Communities Secretary Sajid Javid said it was "astonishing and wrong that Ken Livingstone has not been expelled."
The Tory MP added: "His repeated and offensive comments are totally and utterly unacceptable."
Fellow Tory Mike Freer said Labour had missed and opportunity to send a "clear message that anti-Semitism has no place in politics," saying that the Opposition "bottled it," and that the case was "another example of how out of touch they are with the values of ordinary working people.”
Last night the Labour Party said that the “sanction for the breach of Labour Party rules will be suspension from holding office and representation within the Labour Party for two years.”
They added: “Taking account of the period of administrative suspension already served the period of suspension will end on 27 April 2018.”
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