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Ken Livingstone has claimed efforts to have him kicked out the Labour Party on Thursday are a “political charge”.

The former London mayor was accused of anti-Semitism and suspended from the party last year after claiming that Hitler supported Zionism in the 1930s.

He will have his case heard by Labour’s National Constitutional Committee (NCC) on Thursday.

In a 17-page statement published today, Mr Livingstone said: “What is being presented to the NCC hearing is a political allegation, that I stand up for the rights of party members expressing their support for Palestinian human rights. That is the real charge against me.”

The disciplinary committee hearing will kick off at 10.30am on Thursday at Westminster’s Church House.

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Mr Livingstone has hired top barrister Michael Mansfield QC to represent him and is threatening to go to the High Court if he loses.

In a defiant interview with the Independent he compared the process, which is being conducted in private, to something from North Korea.

He added: “It’s literally the sort of hearing you’d expect in some dictatorship – not in a modern democracy.”

Asked what he would do if he is kicked out of Labour he said: “I assume that it is set up to do that because that’s the composition of the report. I do expect that to happen... But then you go for judicial review.”

He added: “The advice I’ve had legally is that they haven’t got a cat in hell’s chance of winning. They loathe and detest Jeremy [Corbyn].

“They didn’t suspend me because I’m anti-Semitic; it was because I was defending Jeremy, which they consider a worse crime.”