Press TV has conducted an interview with Rodney Shakespeare, a political commentator from London, to discuss the ongoing anti-Zionism row among the ranks of the UK Labour Party following comments made by the former mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, linking Zionism to Nazism.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: It has come into quite a political storm now for the Labour Party. Tell me about the situation. Why has there been so much attention given to Ken Livingstone comments?

Shakespeare: There is a very famous BBC Middle East correspondent and author. His name is Alan Hart, and he used to telephone Golda Meir, the leader of Israel, and say, 'Can I have a cup of tea Golda?' and she would say, 'Come round dear boy!' and the next day he would telephone Yasser Arafat, the leader of Palestine, and say, 'Can I have a cup of tea?' and he would say, 'Come round dear boy.' You see Alan Hart is the most knowledgeable and the fairest judger of the Middle East situation and the title of his famous book is 'Zionism the real enemy of the Jews' and that tells you everything about this business with Ken Livingstone and George Galloway.

You see, the Zionists; if you even mention, say, that you are creating genocide, that you are bombing schools, that you have just annexed Syria, say that they may play the anti-Semite card, but the fact of the matter is that the Zionism is now the problem for the Jews, and what that means is that the Jews stand up with people like me and their supporters and like Ken Livingstone and fight the Zionists.

I regret to say that a substantial proportion of Israelis have become Zionists. They support the annexation of Syria. They support the war crimes being done in Palestine, and in particular they support the hand-in-glove relationship with Saudi Arabia, which lies behind Daesh - this monstrous force doing the throat slitting and the head chopping. So you see, Ken Livingstone is having the guts to stand up and tell the truth, so is George Galloway and so is Alan Hart; and I support them and so does every decent person.

Press TV: How do you see this affecting the Labour Party in general? Of course it is a very sensitive time right before the elections coming up in early May. Tell me that side of the things because there are some critics that say this is actually about the Labour Party going back to its original roots with of course the election of the leader Jeremy Corbyn. How do you see all of these playing into this?

Shakespeare: But the existing parliamentary party is totally out of touch, particularly with the young people in the UK, and they are trying to do a political coup and get rid of Jeremy Corbyn. They are ignoring the fact that Corbyn was elected with a huge vote. So What you really got at the moment is opportunism, in which they are playing the line to try and get a coup against Corbyn, but his position in the Labour Party is secure and the Labour Party is going to do much better at these polls unexpected, because you see the bottom line is here, people are fed up with Zionism. They are fed up with Saudi Arabia. They are fed up with Daesh and they are fed up with my government and the USA supporting Zionist Israel and Saudi Arabia and in fact is supporting Daesh.

So expect some surprises. I think that these creatures in the Labour Party ... they are outdated, outdated thinking, there is a new thinking coming into politics. It is represented by Jeremy Corbyn under huge pressure from the Zionists. But Corbyn will come through and people like Ken Livingstone are tough enough to take the flag at the moment particularly when they know that decent people are supporting him.