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The Jewish community has been “failed” by the Labour party for not expelling Ken Livingstone, the Chief Rabbi says.

The form Mayor of London was suspended from the political party for another year on Tuesday for comments he made about Hitler and Zionism.

Mr Livingstone was initially suspended by the party in April 2016 for claiming Hitler had supported Zionism in the 1930s.

Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis said the decision “yet again” failed to show Labour is “sufficiently serious about tackling to scourge of anti-Semitism.”

Mr Livingstone earlier said he expected to be expelled because the disciplinary panel investigating the case was dominated by “right-wingers”.

He had threatened to launch a judicial review if he was expelled, and said he would now consult with lawyers about his legal position.

The veteran left-winger faced a charge that he engaged in conduct which was "grossly detrimental" to the party.

In a statement condemning the panel’s decision, Rabbi Mirvis said Mr Livingstone used the Holocaust “as a tool with which to inflict the maximum amount of offence.”

He said: "This was a chance for the Labour Party to show that it would not tolerate wilful and unapologetic baiting of the Jewish community, by shamefully using the Holocaust as a tool with which to inflict the maximum amount of offence.

"Worryingly, the party has yet again failed to show that it is sufficiently serious about tackling the scourge of anti-Semitism."

Rabbi Mirvis added: "The Labour Party has failed the Jewish community, it has failed its members and it has failed all those who believe in zero tolerance of anti-Semitism."

Labour bosses decided Mr Livinstone’s fate following a controversial claim that the Nazi leader supported the creation of a Jewish state.

Rabbi Dr Jonathan Romain, from the Maidenhead Synagogue, said that the claim was a “deliberate falsification of history.”

He said: “Saying Hitler is a Zionist was a deliberate falsification of history and akin to describing the Yorkshire Ripper as a nice family man.

“Expelling Livingstone would have been a chance for the Labour Party to show it was rejecting the anti-Semitism increasingly associated with it, but they have equivocated and given that assumption even more credence.”

The suspension was a “betrayal of the values of our party and what it stands for”, according to the chairman of the Jewish Labour Movement Jeremy Newmark.

Simon Johnson, Chief executive of the Jewish Leadership Council, said: "Given that Ken Livingstone has been found guilty, we are deeply disappointed at the decision not to expel him from the Labour Party.

"A temporary suspension is no more than a slap on the wrist.

"Mr Livingstone’s inaccurate and antagonistic comments including over the past 40 years have had a huge impact on the Jewish community.

"We feel that the Labour Party should have had the courage to address this deeply offensive behaviour with a firmer penalty."

The outrage followed a radio interview in which Mr Livingstone claimed that Hitler had supported Zionism in the 1930s before he "went mad and ended up killing six million Jews".

Speaking after the hearing concluded on Tuesday, he told reporters he would not retract his remarks or apologise "for telling the truth”.