Ken Livingstone: Labour will have to let me back

Ken Livingstone suggested Labour will have to lift his suspension over controversial remarks linking Adolf Hitler to Zionism as the row over the party’s handling of anti-Semitism allegations continued.

The former London mayor was suspended over comments branded “vile, offensive and crass” by the party’s deputy leader, Tom Watson, who said Mr Livingstone had “let down the Labour Party”.

But Livingstone, who faces calls to be expelled over his remarks, claimed that the party’s internal inquiry would have to let him back in because “it’s hard for somebody to decide to suspend me from the party” when he had been making the same point for 30 years.