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Ken Livingstone urges Jeremy Corbyn to allow party members to deselect dissenting MPs

Exclusive: ‘All they’ve done is stab him in the back and now they are stabbing him in the front’

Political Correspondent

Wednesday 29 June 2016 17:34 BST

Ken Livingstone accused the 'ghastly Blairities' in the Labour party of betraying their leader (Getty Images)

Ken Livingstone has urged Jeremy Corbyn to allow party members and activists to deselect dissenting MPs in the wake of a bruising no-confidence vote that has destabilised the party’s leadership.

The former London mayor, who is one of Mr Corbyn's closest friends in politics, made the claim after the embattled Labour leader shrugged off a blistering defeat in a vote of no confidence.

Labour MPs voted by a margin of 172 to 40 to pass the motion, making a leadership challenge highly likely. It is unclear, however, whether Mr Corbyn will automatically receive a place on the ballot.

“All they’ve done is stab him in the back and now they are stabbing him in the front,” Mr Livingstone told The Independent as he accused the “ghastly Blairities” in the parliamentary Labour party of betraying their leader.

Mr Livingstone, who is currently suspended from the party pending an internal investigation into anti-semitism claims, added that Mr Corbyn “should bring back automatic reselection”.

“Up until Blair got in local parties could choose their candidate before each general election, so that kept MPs focused on keeping their party membership behind them. Party members must have the right to get rid of their MP,” continued Mr Livingstone.

Dennis Skinner appears to flick the V at former Labour front benchers

“It shouldn’t be jobs for life if you’ve got a safe Labour seat, so I think there will be huge pressure from activists to replace some of these MPs that have been stabbing Jeremy in the back. It’s too late if there’s going to be a snap election but there will be time to do it if the election is going to be 2020.

“Jeremy went out of his way to say we’re not going to do automatic reselection because that will alienate a lot of the MPs but I think he’s most probably going to think, given their betrayal, it’s a good way to go.”

Asked whether he thought Mr Corbyn should introduce such a policy, he replied: “Oh yeah, definitely.”

“You’ve had smear after smear against Jeremy… the anti-semitism stuff certainly damaged us with the local elections but not enough to trigger a leadership challenge then. So then they started saying if we don’t win the referendum it’ll be Jeremy’s fault. It’s not bloody Jeremy’s fault at all, it’s the Tory press that blamed immigrants for everything that’s wrong, basically.”

Responding to speculation in Westminster that Angela Eagle, the former shadow Business Secretary, will run against Mr Corbyn in a potential leadership challenge, the veteran left-wing politician said: “Well, they’ve been clever about that because she is genuinely Labour. Not like some of the old Blairites – trade union background and so on.”

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

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1/14Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On Israel and Palestine

The simple fact in all of this is that Naz made these comments at a time when there was another brutal Israeli attack on the Palestinians; and there’s one stark fact that virtually no one in the British media ever reports, in almost all these conflicts the death toll is usually between 60 and 100 Palestinians killed for every Israeli. Now, any other country doing that would be accused of war crimes but it’s like we have a double standard about the policies of the Israeli government

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On Antisemitism in the Labour Party

As I’ve said, I’ve never heard anybody say anything antisemitism-Semitic, but there’s been a very well-orchestrated campaign by the Israel lobby to smear anybody who criticises Israeli policy as antisemitic. I had to put up with 35 years of this

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On Naz Shah

It’s completely over-the-top and rude, but who am I to denounce anyone with all of that. It was wrong. I don’t think she is antisemitic, it was incredibly rude but I don’t believe she is an antisemite. When the NEC investigation is finished they'll say it was rude and over the top but they won’t find any evidence that she actually hates Jews. We’ve got to investigate all these charges and the context in which they are made. If she is antisemitic like the other three or four members we’ve found who are antisemitic, she’ll be expelled

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On other alleged antisemites in Labour

That is part of the classic antisemitic thing about an ‘international Jewish conspiracy’ – that is the reason we need to have an investigation. I’ve got an open mind. I’ve seen nothing to suggest to me that she is antisemitic. I wouldn’t have supported her if I [thought] she was antisemitic

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On whether what Hitler did was legal, as stated by Naz Shah

That’s a statement of fact – Hitler, I’m sure, passed all those laws that allowed him to do that … it’s history … literally, Hitler was completely mad, he killed six million Jews. She’s not saying it’s legal to kill six million Jews: what they were doing in that country allowed them not just to kill six million Jews, kill all the communists, kill all the leftists like me, my father almost died when a Nazi sub sank his boat. I have no sympathy with Hitler

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On another alleged antisemite in Labour

No, that is, and that’s why she’s been suspended or expelled. What I’ve said is that in 47 years of the party in all the meetings I’ve been in I’ve never heard anyone say anything antisemitic. There are bound to be in a party of half a million people you’ll have a handful of antisemites, you’ll have a handful of racists. You’ve managed to dig out virtually every antisemitic comment that Labour members have made out of half a million people. I’ve never met any of these people. There’s not a problem. You’re talking about a handful of people in a party of half a million people. Jeremy Corbyn has moved rapidly to deal with them

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On Jeremy Corbyn’s response to the allegations

He met with Naz and she agreed she would stand down while the investigation is going on. He called her in to see her. There’s been a huge investigation of virtually everything that anybody put on the internet … many of these people are quite new and recent members of the party that joined in the big influx. 300,000 new people came in

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On his meeting a man accused of antisemitism in London

This is the man who called for Muslims around the world to donate blood after the attacks of 9/11 when he came to London I went with him to the Regent’s Park mosque where he said no man should hit a woman and you should not discriminate against homosexuals. So I can’t equate what I heard him say… he made no antisemitic statement while he was here in London. I don’t investigate people. I’ve simply said what I believe to be true which is that Naz was not antisemitic. She was completely over the top, very rude, but that does not make her an antisemite

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On John Mann’s comments

He went completely over the top. I was actually doing a radio interview at the time that he was bellowing that I’m a racist antisemite in my ear. I’ve had that with John Mann before a few weeks ago screaming that I was a bigot down the phone. I’m not an apologist for anyone who makes antisemitic statements. What I’m saying is don’t confuse antisemitism with criticism of the Israeli government policy

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On calling a Jewish journalist a “concentration camp guard” whilst Mayor of London

I can’t tell if a journalist is Jewish or Catholic or anything. If a journalist is chasing you down the street at nine of clock at night you might be rude to them. Some people might have hit him! He said he was just doing his job. We went all the way to the High Court and the judge opened his judgement by saying ‘I hope no one here is going to suggest that Mr Livingstone is antisemitic’. We won the case

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On claims about Hitler and Zionism

I can’t tell if a journalist is Jewish or Catholic or anything. If a journalist is chasing you down the street at nine of clock at night you might be rude to them. Some people might have hit him! He said he was just doing his job. We went all the way to the High Court and the judge opened his judgement by saying ‘I hope no one here is going to suggest that Mr Livingstone is antisemitic’. We won the case

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On John Mann

I’d simply say to John Mann go back and check. Is what I say true, or is it not? The BBC, you’ve got a huge team of researchers, it will take just an hour or two to go back and confirm. I was asked a question, I answered it. I have never in 45 years since I won my first election, I have never lied. I have always answered the question

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On raising the issue if Hitler

It lays you open to people smearing and lying about you. I’ve always answered the questions put to me and that simple fact is we’ve had a handful of people saying antisemitic things in the Labour Party, they’ve been suspended, some of them are on their way to being expelled, some of them have been expelled already

Labour antisemitism row: What Livingstone said

On people calling for him to be suspended

All my usual critics – but the simple fact is I agree with them; there is no place for antisemitism in the Labour party. For them to suggest I am antisemitic is a bit bizarre considering we worked with Jewish groups and put on exhibitions about the scale of the holocaust, we worked with Jewish groups to tackling the scale of antisemitism back in the 1970s. I’ve always opposed every form of racism whether it’s against black people or Jews. I’m going to stay in the Labour party and continue to fight against all forms of racism and discrimination as I have my entire life

“The only chance they’ve got is running someone who is genuinely Labour. But even then I think the majority of the membership will re-elect Jeremy,” he added, claiming that a contest between Ms Eagle and Mr Corbyn will be closer than if it was between the Labour leader and “some ghastly old Blairite”.

“I don’t think there is anyone likely to do better than Angela. If they were to run Dan Jarvis we’d just go on about how he takes money from the hedge funds. The idea that a hedge fund manager has an interest in electing a genuine Labour government is inconceivable, isn’t it?”

Asked about Mr Corbyn's performance in the EU referendum, Mr Livingstone responded: “What do you want him [Jeremy] to do, sing and dance or something? He made speeches in which he was absolutely telling the truth – it will be worse if we leave but it will need substantial reform. If he’d been running around saying this is the greatest thing on Earth no one would have paid any attention.

"Jeremy tells the truth, he’s not looking for some sort of celebrity crap about what he does.”

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