Ken Livingstone’s suspension from Labour has been extended while the former mayor of London is subject to another formal internal investigation over antisemitism, the party said.
Labour’s disciplinary body suspended Livingstone after he made offensive comments about Adolf Hitler, alleging that he supported Zionism before he went mad.
Members of the Jewish Labour Movement (JLM), including the MP Luciana Berger, wrote a private letter to Labour’s national executive committee (NEC) on Wednesday to warn of the damage that could be done to the party’s reputation if Livingstone’s suspension was lifted.
A Labour spokesperson said: “Ken Livingstone has been administratively suspended from the Labour party, pending the outcome of an internal party investigation. That suspension starts on the date that his membership suspension applied by the national constitutional committee [NCC] ends on 27 April 2018.”
The party said that further complaints had now been made about him, which would be investigated separately.
The NEC’s disputes panel is set to hear his case within the next six months, and could refer him again to the NCC, the only body with the power to expel a Labour member.
Members of JLM, which lobbied hard for Livingstone’s suspension, are understood to fear that the lifting of his suspension, due in April, would seriously damage the party’s reputation in key areas where it hopes to win seats in London council elections.
The letter said Livingstone had not changed his behaviour during his suspension, calling it “deliberate and offensive behaviour towards the Jewish community”. It highlighted his appearance on the Iranian state broadcaster Press TV on Holocaust Memorial Day, where the topic for discussion was how the Holocaust had been exploited to oppress others.
“His appearance was grossly insensitive, and follows the now familiar pattern of deliberate and calculated offensive behaviour. The NEC cannot allow this to continue whilst Ken Livingstone remains a member of the party,” the letter said.
The lifting of Livingstone’s suspension was raised by numerous Labour MPs at the private meeting of the parliamentary Labour party on Monday, with many expressing concerns about the damage that could be done to the party’s reputation.
Wes Streeting MP, the chair of the all-party parliamentary group for British Jews, said: “This decision is welcome, but long overdue. Almost a year has passed since Jeremy Corbyn announced that Mr Livingstone’s conduct would be subject to further investigation with seemingly little action by the national executive committee.
“It should not have required 11th-hour action by an outgoing general secretary to indefinitely suspend him. It is time for decisive action from the NEC and the party’s leadership, not just to expel Mr Livingstone for his gratuitously offensive remarks about Hitler and Zionism and his subsequent lack of remorse, but against all antisemites and their apologists infesting the Labour party.”
Livingstone told the Observer last week that the matter was over and he expected to be reinstated. If he were thrown out, he would take legal action against the party, he said. He argued that he had been referring to an agreement between German Zionists and the Nazi government in 1933. “You can’t expel someone for stating historical fact,” he said.