Ken Livingstone: How can the truth be an offence?

Ken Livingstone has said he believes the Labour should reinstate him because he first made comments about Hitler 30 years ago.

The Labour leader suspended Mr Livingstone yesterday after he invoked Hitler to defend a colleague over anti-Semitic remarks and claimed that there was a “well-orchestrated campaign” against the party by the “Israel lobby”.

He said: "How can the truth be an offence - if I had lied that would be offensive."

“Everything I said yesterday was true and I will be presenting the academic book about that to the Labour Party inquiry,” he said.

The former London Mayor was referring to a book written by the American Marxist historian Lenni Brenner, who has said he believes there was collusion between campaigners for a Jewish homeland and the Nazis.

He said the 'history' he referenced was unknown to MPs because "they don't teach it in Israeli schools".