Jewish Labour activists – including the MP Luciana Berger – have written to the party’s governing body warning that if it is ‘serious’ about restoring its relationship with the community there can be no way back for Ken Livingstone.
The letter, signed by members of the Jewish Labour Movement, also accuses the former London Mayor of “deliberate and calculated offensive behaviour” towards the Jewish community since he was given a two-year long suspension by the party over comments about Adolf Hitler including the claim that the Nazi leader “supported Zionism before going mad”.
The letter was written following a suggestion that Mr Livingstone’s suspension would be lifted in April.
Referring to the forthcoming London council elections in May – with Labour hoping to take the borough of Barnet from the Tories – the JLM letter, sent to all members of the national executive committee, said: “If the Labour Party is serious about repairing its relationship with the Jewish community, there can be no future for Ken Livingstone in the Labour Party.
“Mr Livingstone’s readmission to full membership of the party [is] due to take place days before local elections across the country, on the 28 April. Hardworking candidates and activists don’t deserve the indignity of the NEC undermining their efforts to win votes for the Labour Party by failing to act.”
The letter, also signed by vice-chair Mike Katz and Sarah Sackman, who stood in Finchley and Golders Green in the 2015 general election, also claimed Mr Livingstone had not changed his behaviour during his suspension.
It labelled his recent appearance on Iranian state broadcaster Press TV during a debate screened on Holocaust Memorial Day, as” grossly insensitive”.
