Labour’s former London mayor Ken Livingstone was plunged further into crisis today as he refused to admit that he has ever done anything anti-Semitic.
Mr Livingstone, who is suspended from the Labour party as it investigates him and other alleged anti-Semites, held firm against a barrage of charges at a parliamentary hearing.
This whole session has been a long car-crash for Ken Livingstone so far
— Sunny Hundal (@sunny_hundal) June 14, 2016
He instead blamed “embittered old Blairite MPs”, whom he said misrepresented comments he made about Adolf Hitler to imply that he thought he was a Zionist.
Mr Livingstone instead insisted that Hitler supported people who were Zionists in the 1920s, without being one himself.
Ken Livingstone on antisemitism: "I've had this accusation… only when I've criticised policies of Israel's govt" https://t.co/tqtEKTZxVz
— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 14, 2016
He conceded that, if he had his time again, he would have avoiding mentioning Hitler in a string of disastrous interviews which earned him his suspension.
Memo to Ken Livingstone: Please, please stop talking about Hitler. Ends.
— Martin Daubney (@MartinDaubney) June 14, 2016
He told MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee: “If I could go back in time and avoid referring to Hitler and Zionism, I would.
“It allowed all the anti-Jeremy people in the Labour party to start whipping this up as a separate issue.”
But he insisted that it was the reaction – and not his points in the first place – which were the problem.
He added: “It’s a simple statement of fact: I regret using it because it became this hysterical issue.”
Ken literally just read out part of a Hitler speech from the 1920s
— Alex Wickham (@WikiGuido) June 14, 2016
The defiance echoes previous comments made in a speech, where he said his reading of history was as factual as “1+1=2”.
It also flies in the face of previous evidence by Jewish people given to the committee.
Jonathan Arkush, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, told MPs: “To say Hitler was a Zionist was not only the most absurd thing to say, but a hateful thing to say.
“His views are utterly repellent to our community. If he was to say anything like that about any other people, I think he would be labelled a political pariah, and I think that is what he is.”
Watch here. (Livingstone’s evidence begins at 15:33)
Mr Livingstone countered the assertion by saying that Arkush had been lied to about his real views, and that Jewish people were constantly stopping him on the streets to offer their support.
As well as recent criticism, Mr Livingstone refused to concede any of a litany of past statements were anti-Semitic, including telling two Jewish businessmen to “go back to Iran and try their luck with the ayatollahs.”
He defended calling the foundation of Israel a “catastrophe” to an Arabic TV network, saying that he was referring only to the expulsion of Palestinians.
He also brushed off comparing a Jewish reporter to an Auschwitz concentration camp guard by saying he did not know the man was Jewish.
He added: “I’ve often been offensive to reporters and think they often deserve it.”
In a particularly heated exchange, Labour MP Chuka Umunna lambasted Livingstone, who said he betrayed the party’s values by “conflating Zionism with Hitler’s views, causing obvious and forseeable offence” to huge numbers of Jews.
Livingstone replied: “Telling the truth cannot do that.”
He remains under investigation by Labour.
