General Discussion

Livingstone vents his fury as his bid to rejoin Labour fails

Wednesday 24 July 2002

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/livingstone-vents-his-fury-as-his-bid-to-rejoin-labour-fails-185559.html

Ken Livingstone warned yesterday that Labour in London faced a "highly damaging split" after the party's ruling body refused to allow him to rejoin its ranks. In its closest vote since Tony Blair became leader, the National Executive Committee voted by 17 to 13 block Mr Livingstone's readmission to the party. The Prime Minister himself took the unusual step of voting to ensure the retention of the five-year ban imposed on the former GLC leader for running as an independent in the London mayoral election two years ago.

snip

As the debate raged, Mr Livingstone was in altogether more sedate surroundings as the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh arrived at the glass and steel structure of City Hall. The Mayor was the epitome of establishment courtesy and protocol as he nervously read out a speech welcoming the monarch. Mr Livingstone was guiding the Queen around the panoramic top floor of the building when the news of the vote from Millbank reached him. "17-13," said one aide. "Bloody 17-13".

A visibly shaken Mayor gathered his thoughts before entering a press conference alongside fellow mayors from Paris, Berlin and Moscow. Mr Livingstone could not hide his acute disappointment, staring into the middle distance as his colleagues spoke in their respective languages about his magnificent new premises.

When asked for the Queen and Prince Phillip's reaction to the day, Mr Livingstone cracked his first proper joke of the proceedings. "They had no position on the Labour NEC," he said, to laughter. But there were no smile as he attacked the ruling body for "riding roughshod" over the wishes of London Labour Party members. "It creates the risk that London's vote will be split and that only helps the Conservative Party. I will do my best to ensure that does not happen," he said.

Outside the confines of the press conference, Mr Livingstone was much more vitriolic. When asked by The Independent why the NEC and party leadership had voted against him, he replied: "'As the dog returneth to its vomit, the fool returneth to his folly.' That's my favourite quote from the Bible and it applies now."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Livingstone

Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of London from the creation of the office in 2000 until 2008. He also served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Brent East from 1987 to 2001. A former member of the Labour Party, he was on the party's hard left, ideologically identifying as a socialist.

Born in Lambeth, South London, to a working-class family, Livingstone joined Labour in 1968 and was elected to represent Norwood at the GLC in 1973, Hackney North and Stoke Newington in 1977, and Paddington in 1981. That year, Labour representatives on the GLC elected him as the council's leader. Attempting to reduce London Underground fares, his plans were challenged in court and declared unlawful; more successful were his schemes to benefit women and several minority groups, despite stiff opposition.

The mainstream press gave him the moniker "Red Ken" in reference to his socialist beliefs and criticised him for supporting republicanism, LGBT rights, and a United Ireland. Livingstone was a vocal opponent of the Conservative Party government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, which in 1986 abolished the GLC.

Elected as MP for Brent East in 1987, he became closely associated with anti-racist campaigns. He attempted to stand for the position of Labour Party leader following Neil Kinnock's resignation in 1992, but failed to get enough nominations. Livingstone became a vocal critic of Tony Blair's New Labour project that pushed the party closer to the political centre and won the 1997 general election.