Deputy Leader of Britain’s Labour Party Tom Watson condemns as “incomprehensible” the decision not to permanently expel Ken Livingstone from the party, and says the Jewish community’s outrage over the disciplinary measure is justifiable.
“I find it incomprehensible that our elected lay members on the disciplinary panel found Ken Livingstone guilty of such serious charges, and then concluded that he can remain a member of the Labour party,” he says in a statement.
“This shames us all, and I’m deeply saddened by it,” Watson says. “I am ashamed that we have allowed Mr Livingstone to cause such distress.”
Ken Livingstone (BBC)
Watson adds that Livingstone’s attitude remains “unrepentant,” and he “continue[s] to discredit the party.”
“It is hard not to conclude that his use of inflammatory language to dismiss the fully justified outrage of the Jewish community and others will incite further distortions of the Holocaust in our public discourse,” he says.
The Labour Party yesterday suspended Livingstone for one year over comments he made last year about Hitler supporting Zionism after a disciplinary committee found those remarks “grossly detrimental” to the party.
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