Jeremy Corbyn reopens probe into Ken Livingstone over antisemitism after bowing to pressure from deputy

LABOUR boss Jeremy Corbyn has bowed to a direct challenged from his Deputy and reopened a party probe into Ken Livingstone over antisemitism.

Tom Watson led a wave of outrage from the Shadow Cabinet and dozens of Labour MPs over the decision to merely suspend the ex-Mayor of London for his outbursts about Hitler.

It came as the UK’s Chief Rabbi accused the Labour party of “failing the Jewish community” over anti Jewish hate and party grandees like Lord Levy threatened to quit.

Rabbi Ephraim said “worryingly, the party has yet again failed to show that it is sufficiently serious about tackling the scourge of antisemitism.”

Mr Livingstone was suspended in April last year after claiming Hitler supported Zionism in the 1930s before he “went mad and ended up killing six million Jews”.

But Mr Livingstone — seen out in a red T-shirt portraying Mr Corbyn as revolutionary icon Che Guevara — warned he would take legal action if the party tried to exclude him.

On Tuesday he was slapped with a further 12 month suspension, but many in the party were dismayed that he was not booted out.

As Labour activists up and down Britain tore up their membership cards over the ongoing row, Mr Watson said the situation “shames us all, and I’m deeply saddened by it” – vowing to fight on to see the veteran lefty barred for good.

Under intense pressure, Mr Corbyn finally gave ground and said the party’s powerful ruling National Executive Committee would investigate Mr Livingstone’s comments since the disciplinary decision was announced – leaving the door open for his expulsion.

Mr Corbyn later urged his old friend and ally to take a period of silence ahead of tough local elections for the party next month.

He said: “I’m asking him to apologise for offences he has caused but also to desist from this public debate on these issues and recognise that we need to oppose anti-Semitism, as we do any form of racism.”

But a defiant Mr Livingstone insisted he had simply been telling the truth and warned he would take legal action against the party if it tried to exclude him.

“If then there is another hearing, it does expel me, it will go for judicial review and it will be resolved in a court which is open to the press and public unlike these Labour disciplinary things which take place in private,” he said.

And he claimed that Mr Corbyn faced “undoubtedly a lot of pressure” to expel him.

Mr Watson later hit back saying Mr Livingstone seemed to be “drunk on his own infamy.”

The public infighting quickly spilled over with members of the Shadow Cabinet including Sir Keir Starmer, Emily Thornberry and Barry Gardiner all calling for a tougher punishment for Mr Livingstone’s sick slurs.

Meanwhile ex-leadership contender David Miliband described it as an “unspeakable state of affairs” that led him to “grieve for the state of the Labour party.”

Ex-Labour leader Ed Miliband tweeted: “I was deeply offended by Ken’s original remarks. Equivocation about antisemitism or rewriting Nazi history can have no place in Labour.

“I am appalled that even now Ken shows no real remorse. His status should be revisited in the light of his continuing offensive behaviour.”

And former EastEnders star Tracy Ann Oberman said she was quitting the party over the failure to expel Mr Livingstone.

She blasted: “Like so many of us whose East End heritage was steeped in Labour, I’m reeling today. Resigning my membership. Feel so let down.”

The Board of Deputies of British Jews said relations between the Labour party and the Jewish community “have reached a new all-time low”.

And the Jewish Leadership Council said “a temporary suspension is no more than a slap on the wrist.”

Tomorrow at the launch of the Tories local election campaign Theresa May will accuse Labour of “betraying the Jewish community in our country by letting Ken Livingstone off the hook.”

Speaking in Nottingham, the PM is expected say Labour’s spat has “revealed the depths to which it has now sunk.”

Adding: “It could not be clearer that the Labour Party is now a long way away from the common, centre ground of British politics today.”