The former mayor of London says he never made ‘crass Nazi comments’, and Labour was not ‘tardy in dealing with’ him

I was surprised to see, in your editorial about antisemitism (Labour has a right to define racist behaviour. But it was wrong not to consult Jews, 25 July), a reference to Jeremy Corbyn being “tardy in dealing with” my “crass Nazi comments”. The simple fact is I never said Hitler was a Zionist and it was only when a Labour MP went on television making this allegation that this untruth became global in just minutes and is still being repeated today.

Ken Livingstone’s crass comments about Hitler and Zionism | Letter Read more

Far from being tardy, the general secretary of the Labour party had me suspended within two hours of these comments being made on television, so the fact is that it wasn’t tardy and I never made crass Nazi comments. I merely referred to the agreement reached between the Nazi government and German Zionists in 1933.

Ken Livingstone

London