Sadiq Khan says Ken Livingstone should be kicked out of Labour

Sadiq Khan has said he believes Ken Livingstone should be kicked out of the Labour Party, as the London mayor slammed the length of time taken to probe high-profile allegations of anti-Semitism.



Mr Livingstone - himself a former London mayor and a close ally of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn - is currently suspended from the party as it investigates controversial remarks he made two years ago.

The current incumbent of City Hall - who has previously criticised his predecessor over the row - was asked on ITV's Peston whether Mr Livingstone should be kicked out of Labour.

“On the evidence that I have seen, yes," he told ITV's Peston on Sunday.

Mr Khan added: “Of course, there has got to be due process, but you know there can be no place for people in our party with racist views."

A probe into the veteran left-winger’s conduct was launched in 2016 after Mr Livingstone claimed that Adolf Hitler had backed Zionism and said critics of Israel were subject to a “well-orchestrated campaign” to “smear anybody who criticises Israel policy as anti-Semitic".

The current London Mayor said he struggled to understand why the disciplinary process against Mr Livingstone had taken so long, adding: “I mean some of these cases are so open and shut, some of the things that have been said are clearly so anti-Semitic that I don’t see why it takes so long."

Mr Khan said he was "very pleased" that the party was now seeking to speed up high-profile cases, with Labour's new general secretary Jennie Formby vowing to make it her top priority.

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Mr Corbyn last week acknowledged that the party had "not done enough fully to get to grips with the problem" of anti-Semitism, and said Labour "cannot and will not fail our Jewish brothers and sisters now".

But one of his key backers - Unite general secretary Len McCluskey - sparked anger when he said "Corbyn-hater" MPs had been using the controversy over anti-Semitism to damage the leader.

That view was challenged by Labour's Andrew Gwynne today, with the shadow frontbencher saying Mr Corbyn had been "very clear" that claims of anti-Jewish abuse were not "smears against the Labour Party".

"It is perfectly acceptable for Labour MPs to call out anti-Semitism in our party and in our movement," he told the Andrew Marr show. "And it is incumbent on our party and our movement to then act and root it out."