George Galloway says Ken Livingstone should not be suspended over 'historic facts' about Hitler and Zionism

'They're trying to get rid of Jeremy Corbyn, there's a slow motion coup. The real target is Jeremy Corbyn'

George Galloway has said Ken Livingstone's words were poorly judged but historic fact (Sky News)

George Galloway has defended Ken Livingstone's comments that Hitler supported Zionism as "historical fact" but criticised them as poorly judged.

The former Labour MP said scholars are agreed that Zionist leaders in Germany and the Nazi Chancellor signed an agreement to send German Jews to Palestine.

While Mr Galloway admitted the statement was poorly timed and worded, he added that Jeremy Corbyn should not have been pushed to suspend Mr Livingstone from Labour - and accused a core of its members of orchestrating a "coup" against their leader.

"This is an entirely synthetic crisis," he said. "Ken Livingstone said absolutely nothing wrong, everything he said was the truth, historic fact, proven.

"There was an agreement between the Nazi filth of Hitler and the Zionist leaders in Germany to send Germany's Jews to Palestine, because both of them believed that German Jews were not Germans [...]

"So in that sense, Nazism and Zionism were two sides of the same coin."

Mr Galloway said this Havaara agreement between Hitler and the German Zionists was well-documented by German, Israeli and Jewish scholars.

Yet while Mr Livingstone's delivery was "ill-judged" he could not be accused of anti-semitism, said Mr Galloway.

"Now should Ken Livingstone have gone around the studio saying that? I think not. I wouldn't have, neither on timing nor would I have used the words and imagery he used," he said.

"But [...] Ken Livingstone's entire life has been spent fighting racism. In fact, he'd still be Labour mayor of London if he hadn't gone so out on a limb to help ethnic minorities."

While Mayor of London, Mr Livingstone launched anti-racism campaigns and spoke out against Islamophobia. He has been accused before of antisemitism.

Mr Galloway concluded that Sadiq Khan and John Mann were part of a "coup" to destabilise Jeremy Corbyn's leadership.

"They're trying to get rid of Jeremy Corbyn, there's a slow motion coup. The real target is Jeremy Corbyn [...]

"They will say with all this chaos, we can't go on like this, we need a new leader."

Mr Galloway was expelled from the Labour Party in 2003 over allegations of party disloyalty over the Iraq war, which he opposed.