BY BEN KERRIGAN
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has waded into a row sparked over the comments of former Mayor, Ken Livingstone, dubbed anti-semitic, which has drawn wide criticism against him.
Livingstone sparked an uproar fury when he claimed a that Adolf Hitler was “supporting Zionism” in the early 1930s before he “went mad and ended up killing six million Jews”.
Fury about Mr Livingstone grew worse today, following his defense about remarks on Israel posted by Bradford MP Naz Shah on social media, before she was elected in the commons. Shah has since apologized for the remarks, but the injury caused by her comments don’t seem to have healed completely.
Delivering a candid criticism against the labour party, Johnson said “There is an ideological continuum between Ken Livingstone about Israel and the position of Jeremy Corbyn and indeed the views of their candidate for London mayor, Sadiq Khan.
“They are now basically captured by the old Livingstone mafia, the machine, the London Labour Party – that’s who’s running the Labour Party now. That’s what the Corbynists are.
“The reality is that they have some pretty tough views about Israel and if you listen to some of the things that are being said about Israel and what should happen to Israel, in my view, it shades into antisemitism.”
SUSPENSION
Mr Khan was among those to immediately call for his suspension, tweeting that the “comments are appalling and inexcusable. There must be no place for this in our party.”
A spokeswoman for the club said: “Sadiq has led the criticism of the Labour Party leadership for failing to take proper action to root out anti-Semitism.
“Sadiq has consistently spoken out against anti-Semitism and finds Ken Livingstone’s comments appalling and indefensible.
“He thinks it’s right that Ken Livingstone has been suspended – a course of action he called for.
Ken Livingstone is known to shoot from the heaps, a reputation that reportedly once got labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn to instruct television chiefs not to give the former Mayor air time because of his the unpredictable and unbridled nature of many of his comments.
Livingstone is also known to be a critic of the current Mayor of London. Boris Johnson was today unwittingly served the perfect opportunity to have a proper and justified dig at the former Mayor, who really should have better judgment than to open his mouth so recklessly.
