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Thanks to everybody who complained to the Mail on Sunday about its malicious and misleading article about our meeting ‘Defend the Left’ on March 25. On April 4, the rag has finally apologised to Ken Livingstone (which was printed in the April 7 edition of the Mail on Sunday):

Ken Livingstone said: “A massive thank you to the 1000s of people who gave their support over the last few days & to those who complained to the Mail on Sunday regarding their complete distortion of my recent remarks.

The correction is welcome, but does not change the fact that 1000s of people saw – & other media outlets reprinted – these lies.

We must continue to challenge how parts of the media act, spreading lie after lie, with little regard for the truth, and not be deterred in our campaigning for a better society, for the many not the few.”

The Mail apology reads: “An earlier version of this article incorrectly reported that Mr Livingstone had said it was not anti-Semitic to hate the Jews of Israel. In fact he told the meeting the claim he had said such a thing was one of the lies being spread about him. We apologise for this error.”

This is how we broke the story on Sunday March 31:

Glen Owen, political editor of the Mail on Sunday (March 31) has watched the video of our excellent meeting ‘Defend the Left’ – and still manages to utterly and dishonestly misquote Ken Livingstone.

Even in the headline, he charges Ken with having said: “It is not anti-Semitic to hate the Jews of Israel.” But clearly, Ken only listed this as one of the ridiculous charges made against him!

This is how the Mail on Sunday quotes Ken in its full article:

“‘Jeremy Corbyn’s office did not want it to happen. It was about distracting … this is endemic if you have a genuine socialist leader who is going to transform things for ordinary people and make the bloody corporations pay their fair share of tax – they will do whatever is necessary to stop you. And that means lies and smears in most of the West. In other parts of the world it can mean assassination.’ The former Mayor of London continued: ‘It’s not anti-Semitic to hate the Jews of Israel and you can’t have a proper functioning democracy in a world in which the media, whether it’s the press or internet, can just spread lie after lie after lie.”

This is gutter journalism of the worst kind. Here is what Ken Livingstone actually said at our meeting – in the correct context (while discussing John Mann MP harassing him):

“He [John Mann] starts shouting in my face that I’m a Nazi apologist. He then goes on television and says that I said Hitler was a Zionist. How can a man who loathes Jews be a Zionist? But because it was all filmed on telly, it went global. And it wasn’t just that, soon you could see it all over on the internet that I said, ‘Jews are like Nazis’ and ‘It’s not anti-Semitic to hate Jews of Israel.’ You can’t have a proper functioning democracy in a world in which the media can spread lie after lie after lie.”

Clearly, Ken Livingstone was reporting what John Mann MP had accused him of – he ridiculed these charges, because they were so absurd! This article clearly underlines the point that Ken was making: The media “can spread lie after lie after lie.”

Proof of Ken Livingstone’s speech can be found in our video here, from 14.20mins.

The publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday must immediately take down this article and apologise to Ken Livingstone for misquoting him, clearly in the hope of kicking off once again a scandal that in reality is just not there! We hope Ken sues them for libel.

We urge all supporters of LAW to complain here to the publisher of the Daily Mail (there is a limit on the amount of words, you could use the template below). And click here to make a formal complaint to IPSO (template below).

Template for a complaint to the Mail on Sunday:

In your article you charge Ken Livingstone with having stated: “It is not anti-Semitic to hate the Jews of Israel.” You even feature this in the headline.

But you have taken this quote out of context. Ken Livingstone merely listed this as part of the ridiculous allegations made against him! This is very clear here in the video: https://bit.ly/2YH3pam

Ken actually said: “And it wasn’t just that, soon you could see it all over on the internet that I said, ‘Jews are like Nazis’ and ‘It’s not anti-Semitic to hate Jews of Israel.’

You can’t have a proper functioning democracy in a world in which the media can spread lie after lie after lie.”

You should take this article down and apologise to Ken Livingstone immediately.

Template for a complaint to IPSO:

The article claims that Ken Livingstone, at a meeting ‘Defend the Left’, said: “It is not anti-Semitic to hate the Jews of Israel.” This is even featured as a stand alone quote as part of the headline.

I was shocked to read the article, because I had watched the event via Livestream and I could not recall Livingstone having stated such an outrageous thing. So I watched the video of the event again, which is online here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19bZipdL5Tk&feature=youtu.be

Now if you compare the write-up in the Mail on Sunday with the actual words from the video, I believe it becomes very clear that the Mail on Sunday has quoted Livingstone out of context and maliciously.

This is how the Mail on Sunday reports it:

“‘Jeremy Corbyn’s office did not want it to happen. It was about distracting … this is endemic if you have a genuine socialist leader who is going to transform things for ordinary people and make the bloody corporations pay their fair share of tax – they will do whatever is necessary to stop you. And that means lies and smears in most of the West. In other parts of the world it can mean assassination.’

The former Mayor of London continued: ‘It’s not anti-Semitic to hate the Jews of Israel and you can’t have a proper functioning democracy in a world in which the media, whether it’s the press or internet, can just spread lie after lie after lie.”

But this is the actual context, as evidenced by the video:

“He [John Mann] starts shouting in my face that I’m a Nazi apologist. He then goes on television and says that I said Hitler was a Zionist. How can a man who loathes Jews be a Zionist? But because it was all filmed on telly, it went global. And it wasn’t just that, soon you could see it all over on the internet that I said, ‘Jews are like Nazis’ and ‘It’s not anti-Semitic to hate Jews of Israel.’

You can’t have a proper functioning democracy in a world in which the media can spread lie after lie after lie.”

Clearly, Ken Livingstone was reporting what John Mann MP had accused him of – he ridiculed these charges, because they were so absurd!

I believe that this article is an outrageous attempt to smear Ken Livingstone and the organisation Labour Against the Witchhunt, which put on the meeting.

I believe the publisher of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday must immediately take down this article and apologise to Ken Livingstone and Labour Against the Witchhunt for misquoting him, clearly in the hope of kicking off once again a scandal that in reality is just not there!