'The right thing to do': Jeremy Corbyn reacts to Livingstone's resignation – politics live

Rolling coverage of the day ’s political developments as they happenYuval Noah Harari: Brexit will not halt drive to ‘human unification’Support for Brexit falls sharply in Northern IrelandNo 10 lobby briefing – SummaryMay ’s science and industrial strategy speech – Summary and analysis6.49pmBSTLivingstone tells BBC Radio 5 Live that one of his reasons for leaving was that he was barred from campaigning for the Labour party while he was suspended from it.Having left, he says, he is now free to resume campaigning for Jeremy Corbyn ’s ascension to Downing Street, as well as for causes such as action on climate change.6.47pmBSTLivingstone rejects the claims he should have been expelled over his comments and says that, were he still seeking elected office, he “would have to fight this all the way down to the bitter end”. In the event, he asked himself if it was “really worth all this distraction”.Asked if he believes his stance was damaging the party, he says:What was damaging the party was those people that looked in the Financial Times or on the Huffington Post website or the Jewish Chronicle website and saw the claim that I ’d said Hitler was a Zionist.If I ’d said Hitler was a Zionist, I’d have been off to my doctor to check it wasn’t the sign I was at the first stage of dementia. How can anyone say that a man who loathed and feared Jews all his life was a Zionist? But this has been global, all the way around the world.Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Politics UK news Brexit Ireland Northern Ireland Northern Irish politics Michael Gove Nicola Sturgeon Scottish politics Scotland Arlene Foster Theresa May Science John Bercow House of Commons Andrea Leadsom Nick Clegg Source Type: news