Labour have suspended Ken Livingstone just hours after a Labour MP accused him of being a “Nazi apologist”.
Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale was among those who had called for the party to act after the former London mayor invoked Adolf Hitler to defend a Labour MP accused of anti-Semitism.
Mr Livingstone said that Naz Shah’s comments "were over the top but she’s not anti-Semitic".
Clash between John Mann and Ken Livingstone pic.twitter.com/WMoSonca3t
— Vicki Young (@BBCVickiYoung) April 28, 2016
He added: "Let’s remember when Hitler won his election in 1932, his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism – this before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews. 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."
On the way into an interview for the BBC’s Daily Politics programme Mr Mann shouted at Mr Livingstone that he was a “Nazi apologist”.
Mr Livingstone accused him of being “over the top”.
Less than two hours later Labour announced in a statement that Mr Livingstone had been suspended, "pending an investigation, for bringing the Party into disrepute".
It also announced that the party's chief whip had summoned Mr Mann "to discuss his conduct."
Couldn't agree more - No place for this in any party. https://t.co/TxZBNAF8nu
— Kezia Dugdale (@kezdugdale) April 28, 2016
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