A group of Labour delegates in the UK have called on the party’s national leadership to speed up an internal investigation into anti-Semitic comments made by former London mayor and party member Ken Livingstone , the Jewish Chronicle reported.
The delegates from the Vauxhall district of London expressed “concern at the anti-Semitism in our movement” and called for the party to “act quickly” in its probe of Livingstone.
According to the Jewish Chronicle, Labour sources have confirmed that another probe “is under way” due to the former London mayor's lack of remorse for his comments. Livingstone was suspended from the party last April after stating that "when Hitler won his election in 1932, his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism – this before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews.”
"Jeremy Corbyn promised a zero-tolerance approach to antisemitism; this party expresses concern at the antisemitism in our movement,” read a motion passed by the delegates. “We call upon the CLP Secretary to write on behalf of Vauxhall Labour Party to the chair of the NEC and the party leader asking them to act quickly to consider expelling Mr Livingstone to ensure they take antisemitism as seriously as all other forms of racism. “
A source close to the motion told the Jewish Chronicle that while “Vauxhall is a constituency with few Jewish members [a] lot of members felt very strongly that it was time to take a strong stance on this issue.”
Livingstone has defended his comments by asserting that he had "simply said that back in 1933, Hitler’s government signed a deal with the Zionist movement which would mean that... the Jewish community would be moved to what is now Israel.”
He denied that he had called Hitler a Zionist.
“I have broken no Labour Party rule. I am being attacked by the right-wing of the Labour Party because I support Palestinian human rights and strongly back our leader, Jeremy Corbyn. There is no real evidence against me, so hopefully the Labour panel will dismiss the charge against me. Only a biased and a rigged jury could find against me,” he said in his own defense this March.
