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Ken Livingstone has claimed the Venezuelan crisis is "propaganda" that may be "engineered" by the United States in a fiery radio interview.

The ex-London mayor also called for Britain to ape Venezuela's sweeping reforms and suggested it's in crisis because its former leader didn't "kill all the oligarchs".

Socialist President Nicolas Maduro has been branded a "dictator" by Britain and the US after winning sweeping powers in an election on Sunday.

Smartmatic, the firm which created Venezuela's electronic voting system, claimed the official turnout was "manipulated" by at least a million votes.

Violent clashes have also killed more than 100 people and two opposition leaders were seized from their homes at night and jailed.

But Mr Livingstone, who remains suspended from the Labour Party more than a year after saying Hitler supported Zionism, claimed Venezuela is "not a dictatorship" and we won't know "for decades" if the election was hit by fraud.

(Image: Getty Images Europe) (Image: REUTERS) (Image: REUTERS)

The veteran left-winger clashed with right-wing TalkRadio host Julia Hartley-Brewer over details of the unrest in the South American country.

“Give me the evidence," he told her. "You’ve given me the propaganda that’s circulating round the world.

“The simple fact is, people are trying to overthrow [Maduro's] government who have armed people on the streets from the opposition killing people. You’ve got people blockading the import of food and medicines and so on.

“If there’s any evidence that Maduro wants to create a one-party state, I would immediately oppose that.”

(Image: REUTERS)

Asked if the election was proof of that, Mr Livingstone said: "It’s quite clear their governmental system isn’t working.

"You’ve got a lockdown between the parliament and the president, both of whom have been elected. He’s created a constitut- I mean, I’d like to see us do that here in Britain.

"It’s time we had a real look at our constitution because we’re the most centralised of all the western countries. Local councils are just little rubber-stamps."

Mr Livingstone said former President Hugo Chavez, who died in 2013, brought people out of poverty and created a "fair system".

“Now there are real problems and Maduro’s got to tackle them," he said.

“But one of the things when that Chavez did when he came to power, he didn’t kill all the oligarchs.

(Image: EPA/MIGUEL GUTIERREZ) (Image: EPA/MIGUEL GUTIERREZ)

"There were about 200 families who controlled about 80% of the wealth in Venezuela. He allowed them to live to carry on.

"And I suspect a lot of them are using their power, their control over imports and exports, medicines and food, to make it difficult and undermine Maduro."

Later Mr Livingstone clarified: "I didn't advise him to kill the oligarchs. I advised him to invest in infrastructure. I’m not in favour of killing anyone”.

But he repeated his claim that other forces, namely the US, could be behind the current unrest.

"Nothing undemocratic is justifiable, but I want to wait and see the truth," he said.

“In 30 years when I’m 102, have me on the programme and we’ll examine the American government documents that have been released by them from the CIA.

“And I suspect we’ll discover a lot of this crisis has been engineered, as it was in Brazil in ’64, in Argentina and in Chile."

(Image: Getty)

It comes as Jeremy Corbyn , a previous ardent supporter of Venezuela who is on holiday in Croatia, is facing pressure to condemn Maduro from Tory chiefs and two Labour MPs.

Labour raised concerns over the worsening situation in Venezuela on Monday in a statement by Shadow Foreign Office Minister Liz McInnes.

She raised concerns over Maduro's "authoritarian" rule, condemned "repression, division, and violence" and said "human rights, free speech and the rule of law" must be protected.

A spokeswoman for the Labour leader said yesterday: "The Labour Party 's statement on Monday made clear our position on the importance of the respect for the rule of law and human rights.

"We're watching the situation and developments in Venezuela closely."