| Ken Livingstone |
Candidate for
Mayor of London |
Election date
3 May 2012 |
| Opponent(s) |
Boris Johnson (Con) |
| Incumbent |
Boris Johnson |
| Personal details |
| Website |
Ken Livingstone |
Kenneth Robert "Ken" Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is a British Labour Party politician who has twice held the leading political role in London local government, first as the Leader of the Greater London Council from 1981 until the Council was abolished in 1986, and then as the first elected 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. He stood unsuccessfully as the Labour Party candidate in the London mayoral elections of 2008 and 2012.[3][4]
Born into a working class family in Lambeth, he first joined the Labour Party in 1968 and was elected to represent Norwood at the Greater London Council in 1973, before moving to represent Hackney North and Stoke Newington in 1977, and then to Paddington in 1981, the same year he also became the Leader of the Council itself. In 1999, Livingstone sought the Labour nomination to be the first elected Mayor of London, although his candidacy was opposed by then-Prime Minister Tony Blair. Despite losing the Labour candidacy to Frank Dobson, Livingstone contested the 2000 election successfully as an independent candidate regardless, which led to his expulsion from the Labour Party.
During his first term, he organised a major upgrade of the London transport system, introducing the London congestion charge and the Oyster card. He later rejoined the Labour Party, and was re-elected in 2004, following which he continued supporting and expanding such policies through the introduction of mandatory bus and cycling lanes. He initiated and oversaw London's winning bid to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, ushering in a major redevelopment of the city's East End. Livingstone is credited with initiating improvements in energy saving, recycling and enacting other environment and civil rights policies in the city; in 2001, he set up Britain's first register for same-sex couples. His leadership during the 7 July 2005 London bombings was widely praised and brought him international attention. In 2008, he was defeated in his attempt to gain a third term by Conservative candidate Boris Johnson. The following year, he announced his intention to seek the position again in 2012. He received the Labour Party nomination in 2010, but lost, again, to Johnson. Immediately following this defeat he publicly announced his retirement from politics, stating that "This is my last election."[5]
Livingstone is considered to be politically aligned to the left-wing of British politics within the Labour Party, he considers himself a socialist, and his mayoralty was characterised for its support of social liberalism. His vocal opposition to the policies introduced by the Conservative Government led by Margaret Thatcher, coupled with his socialist beliefs, led to him gaining the moniker of "Red Ken" in the mainstream press. A polarising figure, Livingstone has been praised by the left for his support of socialist world leaders like Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez and his support for Palestine but also criticised by his opponents for extending official invitations to Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an Islamist cleric.
Ken Livingstone was born in his grandmother's house in Lambeth, South London on 17 June 1945.[6] His parents were working class, and his mother, Ethel Ada (née Kennard, 1915–1997), had been born in nearby Southwark, before training as an acrobatic dancer and working on the music hall circuit prior to the Second World War.[7][8][9] Ken's father, Robert 'Bob' Moffat Livingstone (1915–1971),[10] was Scottish, having been born in Dunoon, before joining the Merchant Navy in 1932 and rising up to become ship's master.[11][12] Having married in 1940, following the end of the war the couple moved in to live with Ethel's mother, Zona Kennard, a fierce and aggressive woman whom Livingstone would later describe as "tyrannical".[7] Robert and Ethel went through various jobs in the post-war years, with the former working on both fishing trawlers and on ferries crossing the English Channel, whilst the latter gained employment in a bakers, at Freemans catalogue dispatch and as a cinema usherette.[13]
Livingstone's family background was right wing, and he has described his parents as "working class Tories",[14] although despite this they also held socially liberal views, opposing racism and homophobia, something which was unusual for the time.[15] Livingstone adopted his leftist views when he began to feel optimistic about the new Labour Party government led by Prime Minister Harold Wilson that was elected into power in 1964.[16] The family was nominally Anglican, although Livingstone gave up his belief in Christianity and monotheism when he was eleven, instead becoming an atheist.[2]
After the family moved to a newly built housing estate in the nearby town of Tulse Hill, Livingstone began attending St. Leonard's Primary School. Here, he failed his eleven plus exam, and so in 1956 began his secondary education at Tulse Hill Comprehensive School,[17] where being rather shy he was bullied,[18] and got into trouble with the school authorities.[16] It was at Tulse Hill Comprehensive that he first gained his interest in amphibians and reptiles, keeping several as pets, leading his mother Ethel to worry that rather than focusing on school work all he cared about was "his pet lizard and friends".[19] At school he attained four O-levels in English Literature, English Language, Geography and Art, the subjects that he later described as being "the easy ones". To stay on for sixth form however, he had needed six O-levels, and so dropped out of school to look for work.[20]
From 1962 through to 1970, Livingstone worked as a technician at the Chester Beatty cancer research laboratory in Fulham, where his job involved looking after those animals used in animal experimentation.[21][22] It was here that he found most of the technicians were socialists, and first got involved in political activism, founding a branch of the Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs to fight staff redundancies being imposed by the company's bosses.[15][16] With a friend he had met at Chester Beatty, Livingstone went on a tour of Africa in 1966, visiting Algeria, Nigeria, Ghana and Togo.[15] Returning home, he took part in several protest marches as a part of the anti-Vietnam War movement, becoming increasingly interested in politics.[16]
Livingstone joined the Labour Party in March 1968, when he was 23 years old. He would later describe it as "one of the few recorded instances of a rat climbing aboard a sinking ship", for at the time many socialist activists who were party members were leaving in disgust at the policies being implemented by Harold Wilson's Labour government, which included supporting the United States in the Vietnam War, implementing budget cuts to the National Health Service and introducing both anti-trade union laws and immigration policies perceived to be racist in nature. After abandoning Labour, many of these activists went on to join explicitly socialist political parties like the International Socialists and the Socialist Labour League, as well as single-issue groups like the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Child Poverty Action Group.[23][24] There was also wider dissatisfaction with Labour across the general populace, and the party suffered mass electoral defeats at the local elections. In London, 15 boroughs were lost from Labour's control, including Livingstone's own London Borough of Lambeth.[25]
"My arrival [at the Norwood Labour Party meetings] had been rather like taking a bottle of gin into a room full of alcoholics. I was immediately passed round and consumed."
Ken Livingstone (1987)
[23]
Despite this, Livingstone believed that grassroots socialist campaigning, such as the student protests that were going on globally at the time, were not achieving results, and that "those who wanted to see change could not ignore the traditional parties of the left which gave us access to the levels of power". For this reason he joined Labour, believing that it could be reformed from within to adopt a more socialist platform, and considering the party to be the best chance for implementing progressive political change in the United Kingdom.[26] Members of his local Labour Party branch in Norwood were surprised by the fact that Livingstone had joined them considering the general disenchantment with the party amongst British socialists and other leftists at the time.[21] He soon got involved in the party's local operations, and within a month had become chair and secretary of the Norwood Young Socialists, had gained a place on the constituency's General Management and Executive Committees and was on the Local Government Committee, whose job it was to prepare the Labour manifesto for the next borough election.[21][27] After leaving his job at the Chester Beatty laboratory, in September 1970 he also began a course at the Philippa Fawcett teacher training college in Streatham. It was here that he began a romantic relationship with Christine Chapman, the president of the student's union.[28]
Realising that the Conservative Party governance of Lambeth Borough council would be hard to defeat in an election, Livingstone and other Labour activists, centred around party agent Eddie Lopez, began the task of reaching out to those members of the local populace who were disenfranchised from the traditional Labour leadership. As a part of this, Livingstone began associating with the leftist Schools' Action Union (SAU) which had been founded in the wake of the 1968 student protests, as well as the Brixton branch of the socialist Black Panther Party, encouraging their members to join Labour.[29] His involvement in the SAU however led to him being dismissed from his involvement with the Philippa Fawcett training college student's union, who disagreed with his attempts to politicise and unionise secondary school pupils.[30]
"It was intoxicating to be at what seemed at the time the centre of events. We were pushing ahead with our schemes. We had honoured our pledge that pensioners should travel free on London Transport buses. We introduced the provision of free contraception for anyone who lived or worked in the borough. When Mrs Thatcher (then Education Secretary) made it illegal for Education Authorities to give children free school milk, Lambeth – which was not an education authority – stepped in to continue paying for the service."
Ken Livingstone on the Lambeth Labour Council in the early 1970s (1987)
[31]
In 1971, Livingstone and his fellow socialist members of the local Labour branches developed a new strategy for obtaining political power in Lambeth borough. They focused on campaigning to get elected in the marginal seats that were found in the south of the borough, whilst the safe Labour seats in the north were left to either established or more centrist members of the party. Public dissatisfaction with the recently elected Conservative government of Prime Minister Edward Heath led to Labour achieving its best local government results since the 1940s, with the Labour leftists successfully gaining every one of the marginal seats in Lambeth,[32] and the borough was returned from Conservative to Labour hands.[33]
Later that year, Livingstone, then aged 25, was voted by his fellow Labour Party members to the position of Vice-Chairman of the Housing Committee on the Lambeth London Borough Council, his first actual job in local government.[34][35] In this position, Livingstone, along with the Committee Chairman Ewan Carr, set about cancelling the proposed rent increase which the Conservative government wished to impose on those living in council housing, temporarily halted the project that would have seen Europe's tallest residential tower blocks built in the borough, and implemented plans that would have meant that homeless families had to be immediately rehoused, even if it meant allowing them to squat in empty houses.[36] However, Carr and Livingstone faced much opposition to these plans, and the latter would later relate that "the council bureaucracy... stood in the way of the implementation of our policies", which were subsequently "finally buried by a fatal blow from [the Conservative-led] central government."[37]
Livingstone and other socialists soon became embroiled in the factional in-fighting within Labour, as they vied for powerful positions with more centrist members. Although he never adopted Marxism, Livingstone became involved with a number of Trotskyist groups then active within the Labour party, viewing them as potential allies. In particular, he associated with members of the Socialist Charter, a Trotskyist cell that had infiltrated the Labour party and whose members, including Livingstone's good friends Chris Knight, Graham Bash and Keith Veness, were secretly members of the Revolutionary Communist League.[38] In his struggle against Labour centrists, Livingstone was influenced by Ted Knight, a Trotskyist who convinced him to oppose the 1972 Housing Finance Act that would force those living in council accommodation to pay higher rents, and to oppose the sending of British Army troops into Northern Ireland (then in the midst of The Troubles between nationalist and loyalist communities), which Knight, and subsequently Livingstone, believed would simply be used to quash nationalist protests against British rule in the country.[39][40] Livingstone would go on to stand as the leftist candidate to become Chair of the Lambeth Housing Committee in April 1973, but was defeated by David Stimpson, who was on the right of the Labour Party.[41] Stimpson and his supporters had gained majority control in the Committee, and set about restoring "the normal protocol and respect for the formal hierarchy which had been subverted in the initial radicalism of the new Council", for instance undermining the Family Squatting Group that Carr and Livingstone had helped set up.[42]
In June 1972, after a campaign orchestrated by Eddie Lopez, Livingstone was selected as the Labour Party candidate to represent Norwood in the Greater London Council (GLC). In the subsequent 1973 GLC elections, he won the seat, gaining 11,622 votes, a firm lead in front of his Conservative rival, who gained only 3,615 votes.[43] At the time, the GLC, then led by Reg Goodwin, was dominated by the Labour Party, who controlled 57 seats, compared to the 33 controlled by the Conservative Party and 2 controlled by the Liberal Party. Of the Labour GLC members, around 16, including Livingstone, held to strong leftist views.[44] Now representing Norwood in the GLC, Livingstone continued in his old roles as a Lambeth councillor and Vice Chairman of the Lambeth Housing Committee, becoming a vocal critic of the manner in which Lambeth council had been dealing with the borough's homelessness problem. He learned that the council had been pursuing a racist policy of allocating the best housing to white working-class families, leaving those from ethnic minorities worse off. Although the council's officers denied the accusations, Livingstone went public with the evidence, which was published in the South London Press.[45] In August 1973, he publicly threatened to resign from the Lambeth Housing Committee if the council failed "to honour longstanding promises" to rehouse 76 homeless families who were then staying in the council's dilapidated and overcrowded halfway accomodation. Frustrated at the council's failure to achieve this, he resigned from the Housing Committee in December 1973.[46]
County Hall in Lambeth, then home of the Greater London Council.
Considered a radical and potential troublemaker by the Labour management of the GLC, Livingstone was appointed to the relatively unimportant position of Vice Chairman of the Film Viewing Board, where his job primarily consisted of monitoring the release of soft pornography in the city. Like most of the other Board members, at the time Livingstone opposed cinematic censorship, a view he would change in later life with the increasing availability of violent pornography.[47] With growing support from Labour leftists across London, in March 1974 he was elected onto the executive of the Greater London Labour Party (GLLP), who were responsible for drawing up the manifesto for the GLC Labour group and drawing up lists of candidates for both council and parliamentary seats.[48] Turning his attention once more to housing, he rose to the position of Vice Chairman of the GLC's Housing Management Committee. However, in April 1975 he was sacked from this position for his vocal opposition to the Goodwin administration's decision to cut £50,000,000 from the GLC's house-building budget.[49]
Coming up to the 1977 GLC elections, Livingstone realised that it would be difficult to retain his Norwood seat and instead managed to be selected for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, a Labour safe seat, following the retirement of David Pitt. This ensured that he was one of the few left-wing Labour councillors to remain on the GLC, which fell into Conservative hands under the leadership of Horace Cutler.[50] Deciding to turn his attention towards the Houses of Parliament, Livingstone and his wife Christine moved to West Hampstead in North London, where in June 1977 he was selected by local party members as the Labour parliamentary candidate for the Hampstead constituency, beating Vince Cable to the position by 24 votes to 22. Becoming active in the politics of his new home in the London Borough of Camden, Livingstone was elected Chair of Camden's Housing Committee, although would be criticised by some senior colleagues for being both incompetent and excessively ambitious in this role. In the 1979 general election, Conservative incumbent Geoffrey Finsberg defeated Livingstone in Hampstead by a margin of 3,681 votes.[51]
In 1979, internal crisis rocked the Labour Party as local activists, amassed as the Campaign for Labour Democracy, began their struggle with the Parliamentary Labour Party for a greater say in how the party was managed.[52] Livingstone joined in this clash on the side of the activists, on 15 July 1978 setting up a campaign known as the Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory, under which he unified several smaller hard left and far left groups, many of which were Trotskyist. They began production of a sporadically-published paper, Socialist Organiser, which became a mouthpiece for Livingstone's hard left views.[53] Through this, he heavily criticised the Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan, describing him as "anti-working class".[54]
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the leader of the Conservative Party, held staunch right wing beliefs, being firmly supportive of a capitalist free market and
social conservatism. She would become a bitter opponent of Livingstone and his leftist views.
When Sir Reg Goodwin retired as leader of the Labour group on the GLC in 1980, Livingstone had performed surprisingly well in a leadership election to succeed him but still lost to the moderate Andrew McIntosh. In the GLC election of 7 May 1981, Livingstone moved to the marginal constituency of Paddington. The Labour Party narrowly won control, having been led through the campaign by McIntosh who said that he would not be deposed. The day after the election, Livingstone challenged McIntosh for the leadership, and defeated him by 30 votes to 20. This was the culmination of a long process in which the left-wing of the party had organised to ensure its members were selected as GLC candidates, and all voted as a block within the Labour Party. They had also ensured that they had control of the Labour manifesto for the election.[citation needed]
The GLC then reduced London Bus and London Underground fares, paid for by a special 'supplementary rate' in a policy known as 'Fares Fair'. Although the measure was generally popular and led to an increase in the use of public transport, it was challenged by the Conservative-controlled Bromley Council where there were no London Underground stations, and struck down as unlawful by the Law Lords in December, 1981. The new system of flat fares within ticket zones, and the inter-modal Travelcard ticket, was retained and continues as the basis of the ticketing system.[citation needed]
Despite his defeat in the fares pricing battle, Livingstone would remain a thorn in the Conservatives' side, openly antagonising Margaret Thatcher's government by posting a billboard of London's rising unemployment figures on the roof of County Hall, the GLC headquarters, directly across the Thames from the Palace of Westminster. Under Livingstone, the GLC pursued a variety of unconventional and controversial measures: sponsoring an 'Antiracist Year,' providing city grants to such groups as 'Babies Against the Bomb',[55] and declaring London a 'nuclear-free zone'.
Livingstone made perhaps his most controversial move in December 1982, when the GLC extended an official invitation to the leaders of the Irish nationalist party Sinn Féin. In the event the leaders, Gerry Adams and Danny Morrison were denied entry into the mainland under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and they met Livingstone in Northern Ireland instead. After meeting him, Livingstone said that Britain's treatment of the Irish over the last 800 years had been worse than Adolf Hitler's treatment of Jews. For his opinions on Ireland, The Sun newspaper called Livingstone "the most odious man in Britain". It also made him a potential target for Ulster loyalists: in 2003 it was revealed in Michael Stone's autobiography that there was an Ulster Defence Association plot to kill Livingstone while on the Tube,[56] though it came to nothing as the UDA agent (revealed in 2006 to be Stone himself)[57] became convinced the security forces were on to him.
Such actions made Livingstone a favourite target for the press. He acquired the nickname 'Red Ken' and Private Eye dubbed Livingstone 'Leninspart' (after their character Dave Spart), partly in response to his earlier toppling of McIntosh. However, Livingstone favoured European integration and proportional representation, neither of which were particularly popular causes among the British left at that time. When several Labour councils (including Militant-controlled Liverpool) protested against the government's rate-capping policy by refusing to set a property tax rate, Livingstone refused to join the campaign because he knew the GLC could run its services while keeping within capping limits. The GLC had lost all central government grants by 1983. Many on the left regarded Livingstone as having sabotaged the campaign and it led to a personal rift with John McDonnell, who had been finance chairman and deputy leader. Livingstone's preference for practical politics, which was being demonstrated at a time when the rest of the Labour left were more interested in theoretical debates, may in part explain why his popularity grew[citation needed]. Other politicians identified as the 'hard left', such as Tony Benn, found themselves increasingly isolated from the general public.[citation needed]
The Conservative Party won the 1983 general election with a large majority, and forged ahead with their long-standing plan to abolish the GLC and devolve control to the individual boroughs. The GLC mounted a massive and expensive campaign to 'save London's democracy,' while the proposed abolition bill faced opposition from politicians on all sides, including the former Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath, who had introduced the six other Labour-controlled metropolitan councils which were also to be abolished. On 2 August 1984, Livingstone and three other Labour councillors resigned, forcing by-elections that they intended to serve as a referendum on the abolition issue. John Wilson, the Labour Chief Whip, served temporarily as Council Leader. However, the Conservatives chose not to contest the by-elections, and the voter turnout was smaller than Livingstone had hoped for[citation needed]. On 15 December 1984, the House of Commons passed the Local Government Act 1985 by a relatively slim 23-vote margin. The GLC was formally abolished at midnight on 31 March 1986.[citation needed]
Livingstone stood for Parliament in the 1987 general election, winning a seat in the north-west London constituency of Brent East. He replaced Labour MP Reg Freeson. Freeson had retained his seat at the 1983 general election, but was deselected in 1985 after a bitter struggle, described as "political 'murder'" in his Guardian obituary[citation needed], and replaced as Labour candidate in Brent East by Livingstone.
In his maiden speech to Parliament in July 1987, Livingstone used parliamentary privilege to raise a number of allegations made by Fred Holroyd, a former Special Intelligence Service operative in Northern Ireland. Despite the convention of maiden speeches being non-controversial, Livingstone alleged that Holroyd had been mistreated when he tried to expose MI5 collusion with Ulster loyalist paramilitaries in the 1970s and the part Captain Robert Nairac is alleged to have played.[58] He also voiced Colin Wallace's allegations of MI5 dirty tricks levelled at Harold Wilson, part of what became known as the "Wilson plot".
In September 1987 he was elected to the party's National Executive Committee, although he lost this position two years later; he regained it in 1997 beating Peter Mandelson in what some interpreted as a rebuke to Tony Blair. He was re-elected MP in the general election of 1992, with a 6% swing to Labour in his Brent East constituency. Besides serving in the Commons, Livingstone held a number of other 'odd jobs' during this period, including game show contestant and host, after-dinner speaker, and restaurant reviewer for the Evening Standard. In 1987, he published his autobiography-cum-political tract, If Voting Changed Anything They'd Abolish It.
Livingstone was again re-elected in the 1997 general election, in which Labour was returned to power under the leadership of Tony Blair. Among Labour's proposals was the establishment of a Greater London Authority which was to be a strategic body: unlike the GLC the Greater London Authority would not provide any services to Londoners directly. The new Greater London Authority would be headed by a directly elected mayor, who would be watched over by a 25-member Assembly.
Despite having earlier criticised the specific proposals for a new London-wide authority, Livingstone was widely tipped for the new post of Mayor. The mayoral election was scheduled for 2000, and in 1999, Labour began the long and trying process of selecting its candidate. Despite Blair's personal antipathy, Livingstone was included on Labour's shortlist in November 1999, having pledged that he would not run as an independent if he failed to secure the party's nomination. William Hague, then-Leader of the Opposition taunted Blair at Prime Minister's Question Time: "Why not split the job in two, with Frank Dobson as your day mayor and Ken Livingstone as your nightmare?"[59]
Labour chose its official candidate on 20 February 2000. Although Livingstone received a healthy majority of the total votes, he nevertheless lost the nomination to former Secretary of State for Health Frank Dobson, under a controversial system in which votes from sitting Labour MPs and MEPs were weighted more heavily than votes from rank-and-file members.[60] On 6 March, Livingstone announced that he would run against Dobson as an independent, confirming speculation that he would renege on his earlier pledge. He was suspended from the Labour Party the same day and expelled on 4 April. Tony Blair said that Livingstone as mayor would be a "disaster" for London; he later said he was wrong in that prediction.[61]
The result of the election was a Livingstone victory: Dobson, who it was alleged, had been pressured into running by the party leadership, unsuccessfully based his campaign on claims that Livingstone was an egomaniac, and the Conservatives remained becalmed after their catastrophic national defeat in 1997. Livingstone came out ahead in the first round of balloting with 38% of first-preference votes to Conservative Steven Norris's 27%; Dobson finished third, with 13% of all first-preference votes – just ahead of Liberal Democrat Susan Kramer, with 12%. Under the supplementary voting system employed for the election, only the votes cast for Livingstone and Norris were considered in the second round, where Livingstone won with 58% of first- and second-preference votes, versus 42% for Norris.
Livingstone continued to sit in parliament, as an independent (having had the Labour whip withdrawn), until standing down at the 2001 general election.
In March 2002, while still independent, Livingstone was accused of "cronyism" by some Labour party members in the London Assembly after he had appointed six officials as special advisers at a salary level which seemed to them excessive, and a manoeuvre to help his chances of being re-elected. Livingstone denied the allegations and stated the appointments were a "necessary efficiency drive."[62]
Livingstone applied for readmittance to the Labour Party in 2002 but was rejected. In November 2003, however, rumours emerged that the Labour Party would allow Livingstone to rejoin, just ahead of the 2004 London mayoral election. Opinion polls consistently gave a poor showing to Labour's official candidate, Nicky Gavron, and many in the party leadership (including Tony Blair himself) feared that Labour would be humiliated by a fourth-place finish. In mid-December, Gavron announced she would stand down as the Labour candidate in favour of a 'unity campaign,' with Gavron as Livingstone's deputy, with Labour's National Executive Committee voting 25–2 to pave the way for Livingstone's readmittance. The deal hinged on a 'loyalty test' administered by a special five-member NEC panel on 9 January. The panel recommended that Livingstone be allowed back in the party. The move towards readmittance came amid considerable opposition from senior party members, including Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, and former party leader Neil Kinnock.[61] In a ballot of Labour Party members in London, Livingstone was overwhelmingly endorsed as the Labour candidate for the 2004 Mayoral election.
Livingstone was re-elected Mayor of London on 10 June 2004. He won 36% of first preference votes to Conservative Steven Norris's 28% and Liberal Democrat Simon Hughes's 15%. Six other candidates shared the remainder of the votes. When all the candidates except Livingstone and Norris were eliminated and the second preferences of those voters who had picked neither Livingstone or Norris as their first choice were counted, Livingstone won with 55% to Norris's 45%.
"Obviously everyone respects the decision of the electorate. But it is already clear that Boris Johnson's Tory regime is one of decline [in] London: economic decline, social decline, cultural decline and environmental decline. This is the real root of the incompetence [his administration] has shown in its first two months in office. I believe this will become increasingly obvious and therefore I will use the normal methods of democratic debate to convince electors that the previous policies were successful and the new ones will fail."
Ken Livingstone (2008)
[3]
Livingstone sought re-election in 2008, but was defeated by Conservative candidate Boris Johnson on a night that saw a huge swing against Labour right across Britain. Once first and second votes were taken into account Johnson had 1,168,738 votes, Livingstone 1,028,966 – a margin of 139,772 votes or just over 6% of those who voted.
Speaking immediately after the count, Johnson paid public tribute to his defeated rival, praising "the very considerable achievements of the last mayor of London" and describing Livingstone as "a very considerable public servant". Johnson went on to say "You shaped the office of mayor. You gave it national prominence and when London was attacked on 7 July 2005 you spoke for London." Johnson also spoke of Livingstone's "courage and the sheer exuberant nerve with which you stuck it to your enemies" and expressed a desire that the new Conservative administration could "discover a way in which the mayoralty can continue to benefit from your transparent love of London".[63]
Livingstone acted as a stand-in presenter on London talk radio station LBC 97.3's Jeni Barnett for a week beginning on 30 June 2008. In July 2008 he announced his intention to run again for the office of Mayor of London at the next mayoral elections and signalled his intent to organise a "progressive alliance" of political parties (such as the Labour Party and the Green Party of England and Wales), trade unions and interest groups to defend the progress which was made during his terms as Mayor and to prepare for the next mayoral elections.
On 28 August 2008, it was announced that Livingstone will be an adviser on urban planning to Caracas, Venezuela.[64][65][66][67] He will act as a consultant on the capital's policing, transport and other municipal issues.[65][66] Livingstone was appointed by Hugo Chávez to advise officials and mayoral candidates in Caracas, in order to help transform the city,[64][67] which journalist Rory Carroll described as suffering from, "Gridlocked traffic, a crumbling centre, hillside slums, horrific murder rates, corrupt police and inept local government".[66] Livingstone reckoned that in twenty years a "first-world city" can be made out of Caracas,[67] stating, "I have a very extensive network of contacts both domestically and internationally which I will be calling on to assist in this."[66] No decision on a salary for the ex-mayor has been made, although he mentioned that, "The whole cost of this trip has been paid for by the government of Venezuela and as an unemployed citizen I would not be able to pay for my own fare otherwise."[66] The appointment follows on from the controversy surrounding the deal brokered by Livingstone in February 2007 for the Greater London Authority and Transport for London to provide advice to Venezuela in exchange for cheap fuel to help with bus subsidies. The deal was later overturned by new mayor Boris Johnson,[64][65][66][67] and Livingstone offered his services to Chávez so that Venezuela gets the "advice that we promised".[64][67] Livingstone played down any accusations that his close relationship with the Venezuelan President was controversial, "unless you believe American propaganda",[65] while a spokesperson for Johnson said, "Ken Livingstone is free, as a private individual, to offer his advice and services to whomever he wants."[64] Livingstone is now being touted as a key asset for Chávez in the upcoming November elections in the country.[66]
From September 2009 to early 2011, when he chose not to continue,[68] Livingstone was a presenter on the Iranian state-sponsored international news channel Press TV of a book review programme Epilogue; the last of Livingstone's seven pre-recorded episodes was broadcast in March 2011. He came under criticism for his association with the network.[69][70]
On 17 March 2010, Ken Livingstone appeared on a platform with Cambridge's Green Party Parliamentary candidate, Tony Juniper, and prominent environmental campaigner and former Green Party co-Principal Speaker Jonathon Porritt, at the Emmanuel United Reformed Church in Cambridge. He has courted controversy for this appearance with the Cambridge Labour Party for his apparent support of Tony Juniper, who was dubbed as a possibility to steal the Cambridge seat at the 2010 General Election. Livingstone said that he would be 'delighted' to see Juniper elected, though stopped short of announcing his endorsement of him.
In July 2010, he was a speaker at the Durham Miners' Gala. In his speech he praised the culture of the working class retained in the Gala, and suggested it should have been brought to London during his time as Mayor.[71] He also used the speech to attack spending cuts by the new coalition government, claiming they were not necessary.[72]
In April 2011, Livingstone announced than his second memoir would be published the following year by Faber & Faber, who were rumoured to have paid him around £90,000 for it.[73]
In August 2011, Livingstone caused some controversy when he jokingly claimed that the coming mayoral election was "a simple choice between good and evil. I don't think it has been so clear since the great struggle between Churchill and Hitler", before going on to joke that "Those who don't vote for me will be weighed in the balance come Judgment Day. The Archangel Gabriel will say, 'You didn't vote for Ken Livingstone in 2012. Oh dear, burn for ever.'" Conservative MPs and right wing media outlets immediately condemned the comments, branding them "crass" and in "incredibly poor taste".[74]
During the 2012 campaign, Ken Livingstone wept during a campaign broadcast which began with him stating, "We’ve all seen party political broadcasts before but this one’s a bit different. It’s a political broadcast on behalf of ordinary Londoners." In the broadcast, ordinary Londoners appeared to be urging him to win the mayoral election. There were reports in the media that the people featuring in the broadcast were not a cross-section of London voters but were hired actors and hand-picked Labour activists.[75][76][77][78] Livingstone's aides said the allegation was untrue, although acknowledging that the participants were recruited by an advertising agency, were speaking scripted lines and were paid expenses.[78][79][75] A statement from the Livingstone campaign read: "Everyone who appears in Labour's party political broadcast is an ordinary Londoner backing Ken on 3 May. No actors were used in the broadcast."[75]It was claimed that Ken Livingstone had already seen the broadcast before it was publicly aired and the spontaneity of his emotions were called into question. Some of his political opponents suggested that his tearful display was "a stunt". A spokesman for Livingstone confirmed that he had seen the video before his emotional viewing at the campaign launch.[78][79][75]
On 4 May 2012 Livingstone was defeated in the London 2012 Mayoral Elections by the incumbent Mayor, Boris Johnson. There was only a difference of 62538 votes between the 2 candidates with Livingstone receiving 992,273 votes and Johnson receiving 1,054,811 votes. Livingstone criticised bias in the media and declared that he would be bowing out of politics.[80][81]
One of Livingstone's challenges as Mayor of London was dealing with the city's aging transportation infrastructure. Despite conflict over appropriate funding schemes and engineering challenges to modernising both the London Underground and the city's bus system, an Association of London Government survey, conducted by MORI towards the end of Livingstone's first term in 2004, suggested growing public satisfaction with public transport, with buses in particular being seen as more frequent and reliable.[82]
In accordance with his pre-election pledge, bus fares were frozen for four years, but then the cash fares on buses more than doubled while Oyster (see below) fares stayed the same. The purpose of this was to increase uptake of the Oyster card. Passengers not paying in cash greatly increased the speed and reliability of bus services. Livingstone also removed the famous Routemaster 1950s buses from routine service on 9 December 2005, claiming it was because the new buses were wheelchair-accessible, although several of the old buses are used on shortened "heritage routes".[83] There was some question over the legality of using the old Routemaster under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 as the Routemasters were inaccessible for wheelchair users. They were also impractical for the elderly and parents with prams due to the amount of steps compared to modern low-floor buses. The amount of deaths and serious injuries resulting in people falling down the stairs, falling off, or failing to get on, these open platform buses reduced to zero. In tandem with the removal of Routemaster buses, Livingstone oversaw the introduction of articulated buses in London, which were swiftly nicknamed "bendy buses". They initially caused concerns after a series of fires,[84] and were the subject of debate during the following Mayoral election campaign over claims of potential danger to cyclists.[85] The new buses were nicknamed "free buses" due to the high rate of fare evasion,[86] and Transport for London estimated that their abolition would save £7.4 million in unpaid fares.[87]
Livingstone introduced and has been a strong proponent of the Oyster card smartcard ticketing system for London's public transport network introduced in 2003. In late 2005, Livingstone proposed large fare increases for on-the-spot tickets across the Tube and bus network to encourage regular travellers to use the automated Oyster system, to reduce queuing at Underground stations and to avoid delays in conductorless buses as drivers issue tickets. The plans, although ratified by the GLA and introduced in January 2006 were condemned by those who argued that the increases would increase the cost of travelling in London to tourists and others who do not travel regularly. Civil liberties groups[who?] have expressed concern over the way in which Transport for London is able to track the movements of passengers using the Oyster card system.[88] Livingstone moved to make all bus journeys free for passengers under the age of 18 enrolled in full-time education who travel with an Oyster card[89] and introduced initiatives to enable visitors to buy an Oyster card before arriving in London.
One of the key points of conflict between Livingstone and the Labour Party had been the proposed Public-Private Partnership (PPP) deal for the London Underground. Livingstone had run in 2000 on a policy of financing the improvements to Tube infrastructure by a public bond issue, which had been done in the case of the New York City Subway. However the Mayor did not have power in this area at the time as the Underground operated independently of Transport for London. The PPP deal went ahead against his wishes in July 2002, but it did not diminish Livingstone's desire to re-join Labour. Metronet, one of the winners of the contract for PPP, subsequently went into administration in July 2007. It was subsequently bailed out by the UK Government at a cost of £2 billion.[90]
Livingstone introduced the London congestion charge with the purpose of reducing traffic congestion in central London. Since being introduced the charge has been controversial, though Transport for London states that traffic has fallen by 20% within the charge zone since the scheme began.[91] One reason for the controversy is that whilst the scheme has been lucrative for its private-sector operator, Capita, some critics argue it has failed to raise the promised levels of funding for public transport as costs eat up the revenue.[92]
However, its apparent success in reducing congestion has led to similar schemes being proposed in other major cities such as New York.[93]
In November 2003, Livingstone was named 'Politician of the Year' by the Political Studies Association, which cited his implementation of what the association called a 'bold and imaginative' congestion charge scheme.[94]
Livingstone and his team won the right for London to host the 2012 Summer Olympics, lobbying the then Government of the United Kingdom to enter the bid. He described his primary motivation in a speech at St Martin-in-the-Fields church as being to extract government funds to develop the east end of London, neglected for over thirty years.[95]
Ken Livingstone has been called “an environmentalist, a leftist, a lover of newts,"[96] and has made a significant effort to reduce London’s impact on the environment. He began by creating the London Hydrogen Partnership and the London Energy Partnership in his first term as Mayor of London.[97] The Mayor’s Energy Strategy, “green light to clean power,” commits London to reducing its emissions of carbon dioxide by 20%, relative to the 1990 level, by 2010.[97] However, he does support the Thames Gateway Bridge in East London that Friends of the Earth say "would bring few benefits to the local people and lead to more traffic, more noise and air pollution and an increase in climate-changing emissions".[98] In October 2007, London Councils stated Livingstone had gone back on his promise to chair the developing London Waste and Recycling Board, and to provide £6 million of funding for the project, because "the government had failed to provide him with absolute control of the Board."[99]
In June 2007, Livingstone criticised the planned £200 million Thames Water Desalination Plant at Beckton, which will be the United Kingdom's first, calling it "misguided and a retrograde step in UK environmental policy", and that "we should be encouraging people to use less water, not more."[100]
At the beginning of July 2005 Livingstone was in Singapore, shepherding London's bid for the 2012 Olympic Games through the decision-making of the 117th IOC Session. On 7 July London was bombed in four co-ordinated attacks, and Livingstone responded with an address that ended:
Finally, I wish to speak directly to those who came to London today to take life. I know that you personally do not fear giving up your own life in order to take others – that is why you are so dangerous. But I know you fear that you may fail in your long-term objective to destroy our free society and I can show you why you will fail. In the days that follow, look at our airports, look at our sea ports and look at our railway stations and, even after your cowardly attack, you will see that people from the rest of Britain, people from around the world will arrive in London to become Londoners and to fulfil their dreams and achieve their potential. They choose to come to London, as so many have come before because they come to be free, they come to live the life they choose, they come to be able to be themselves. They flee you because you tell them how they should live. They do not want that and nothing you do, however many of us you kill, will stop that flight to our city where freedom is strong and where people can live in harmony with one another. Whatever you do, however many you kill, you will fail.[101]
Livingstone defended the police after the mistaken killing of a Brazilian man, Jean Charles de Menezes, who police believed was a suicide bomber.[102]
In 2001 Livingstone revived the free anti-racism Music festival now called Rise: London United. He believes that this, along with other anti-racist policies, is why London has seen a 35% decrease in racist attacks.[103]
In September 2005 Livingstone came out in support of placing a statue of Nelson Mandela, the former President of South Africa, on the north terrace of Trafalgar Square. Livingstone said "There can be no better place than our greatest square to place a statue of Nelson Mandela so that every generation can remind the next of the fight against racism."[104] He was highly critical of the Planning and City Development Committee of Westminster City Council who refused planning permission.
In 2008 Livingstone's race advisor Lee Jasper resigned after allegations of misuse of public funds.[105] Jasper was later cleared of the charges, but was heavily criticised in a report by the district auditor.[106] Simon Woolley of Operation Black Vote has said the 2008 Mayoral campaign has seen the media pursue a "wholly disproportionate" focus on Jasper, Doreen Lawrence (Livingstone supporter and mother of Stephen Lawrence), and others.[107]
On 23 August 2007, at 12 noon, Mayor Ken Livingstone formally apologised for London's role in the transatlantic slave trade. In a bicentennial day memorial event, he also called for the 23 August to be named as a national day for remembrance in the UK for the "horrific crime against humanity of the transatlantic slave trade." He went on to make the following tearful speech and formal apology:
"It is because it is the anniversary of the biggest slave revolt in history, that UNESCO officially marks this day, the 23 August, the anniversary of that outbreak in Haiti, as slavery's official remembrance day. This is why we, in London, call for it to be the annual slave memorial day. We are therefore here to initiate London's annual slavery memorial day, and call for the establishment of a national, annual memorial day. In 1999, Liverpool became the first major British slaving city to formally apologise. The Church of England soon followed suit. In March I invited representatives of London's institutions to join the City of Liverpool and the Church of England for formally apologising for London's role in this monstrous crime. As Mayor, I offer an apology on behalf of London and its institutions for their role in the transatlantic slave trade."
Rejecting the idea that it is not possible to "meaningfully apologise for something a former generation did," Livingstone emphasised that London and by implication the rest of the developed world still profited enormously from the assets accumulated in the slave era, adding "It was the racial murder of not just those who were transported but generations of enslaved African men, women and children. To justify this murder and torture black people had to be declared inferior or not human. We live with the consequences today."[108]
Livingstone hosted a Jewish Hanukkah ceremony at City Hall in December 2005. He said he intended this to be an annual occurrence.[109][110] On 17 March 2002 Livingstone introduced an annual Saint Patrick's Day festival to London to celebrate the contributions of the Irish to London, with around 250,000 people annually turning out for this.[111] On 28 October 2006 he helped organise the first ever "Eid in the Square" in Trafalgar Square, in commemoration of the Eid ul-Fitr festival which marks the end of Ramadan, the Muslim month of fasting.[112]
In 2001, Livingstone set up Britain's first register for same-sex couples; while falling short of legal marriage rights, the register was seen as a "step towards" such rights. Legal status was later passed by the government through the Civil Partnership Act 2004.[113]
In December 2007, the Evening Standard published news of an investigation into grants worth £2.5 million paid to organisations in which Ken Livingstone's adviser Lee Jasper was involved. It is confirmed that some of these grants were paid directly by the mayor's office.[114] An independent report into the affair by District auditor Michael Haworth-Maden in July 2009 found no evidence of "misappropriation of funds" but noted "significant" gaps in financial paperwork. The auditor reproached Mr Jasper for his failure to declare interests to the "standards expected" and called for administrative improvements at the Greater London Authority.[115]
Following Mr. Livingstone’s defeat in the 2008 Mayoral Elections, The Daily Mail reported that “Eight 'cronies' of Ken Livingstone are to receive £1.6 million in pay-offs following his defeat in the London mayoral elections.” Mr. Livingstone changed the rules for political appointees who would otherwise not have been eligible for severance packages, which paved the way for the eight City Hall advisors to receive an average of £200,000. Liberal Democrat Leader Dee Doocey stated that the payments were “completely inexcusable” and added that “It seems like there's one law for the ordinary working person and one law for the political class.” Tony Travers, local government expert at the London School of Economics, said: “I think most people will be shocked. You could do quite a lot about knife crime with £1.6 million. It is odd indeed that the full benefits of labour laws designed to protect the vulnerable are being claimed by courtiers who knew they would lose their jobs if their master lost the election.”[116] Mr Livingstone responded to the comments by stating that 'It's a question of what the law requires. Either there's a legal responsibility or there isn't.'
Shortly after his re-election in 2004, Livingstone urged tube drivers of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) to cross picket lines rather than join a strike over pay and conditions following a dispute with the new management. This call led the general secretary of the RMT, Bob Crow, to resign in protest from the board of Transport for London.[117] Amongst those who criticised Livingstone for this was the Respect candidate for Mayor, Lindsey German.[118]
In 2004 during that year's London mayoral election, Livingstone was quoted on The Guardian's website as saying: "I just long for the day I wake up and find that the Saudi Royal Family are swinging from lamp-posts and they've got a proper government that represents the people of Saudi Arabia."[119] He was criticised for his comments. Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrats mayoral candidate, said the remarks were "deeply unhelpful, offensive and inappropriate".[120]
In a March 2005 commentary in The Guardian he accused Israel's prime minister Ariel Sharon of being a "war criminal", citing his alleged personal responsibility for the Sabra and Shatila massacre in 1982 and accusations of ethnic cleansing.[121]
On 20 July 2005, Livingstone made the following comments in a BBC interview about the role of foreign policy as a motivation for the London bombings of two weeks earlier:
"I think you've just had 80 years of western intervention into predominantly Arab lands because of the western need for oil. We've propped up unsavoury governments, we've overthrown ones we didn't consider sympathetic. And I think the particular problem we have at the moment is that in the 1980s ... the Americans recruited and trained Osama Bin Laden, taught him how to kill, to make bombs, and set him off to kill the Russians and drive them out of Afghanistan. They didn't give any thought to the fact that once he'd done that he might turn on his creators. A lot of young people see the double standards, they see what happens in Guantanamo Bay, and they just think that there isn't a just foreign policy."
Later in the interview he stated, about the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza Strip:
"Under foreign occupation and denied the right to vote, denied the right to run your own affairs, often denied the right to work for three generations, I suspect that if it had happened here in England, we would have produced a lot of suicide bombers ourselves."[122]
Right-wing commentator Mark Steyn described the interview as Livingstone "artfully" attempting "to draw a distinction between Muslim terrorists blowing up his own public transit (which he didn't approve of) and Muslim terrorists blowing up Israeli public transit (which he was inclined to be sympathetic to)."[123]
In November 2003, Livingstone made headlines for referring to US President George W. Bush as 'the greatest threat to life on this planet,' just before Bush's official visit to the UK. Livingstone also organised an alternative 'Peace Reception' at City Hall 'for everybody who is not George Bush,' with anti-war Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic as the guest of honour. In 2004 he referred to Bush as "the most corrupt American president since Harding in the Twenties".[124] In July 2007 Livingstone stated that Prime Minister Gordon Brown needed to explain to Bush "that US governments need to return to a realistic view of the world. The US is the world's single most powerful country, but much weaker than the rest of the world put together. The attempt by one country to unilaterally impose itself on the rest of the world is not only undesirable but simply won't work."[125]
At a 2 January 2009 London press conference featuring celebrities announcing opposition to Israel's launch of the Gaza War, Livingstone called for the European Union and the UK to bring home their ambassadors to Israel to express disapproval for the "slaughter and systematic murder of innocent Arabs".[126][127]
Livingstone said he was "appalled" that Osama bin Laden had been shot dead by US Special forces "in his pyjamas" and "in front of his kid," and that the values of a western democracy would have been best demonstrated if Bin Laden had been put on trial and his words challenged.[128]
In February 2007, Ken Livingstone signed a deal with Venezuela to provide cheaper oil for London buses. In return, the Greater London Authority was to advise Venezuela on recycling, waste management, traffic and reducing carbon emissions. This deal came under criticism from the London Assembly Conservatives including Richard Barnes, who stated that the "money would be better directed at the poor of Venezuela,"[129] and journalist Martin Bright, who said that the deal "effectively takes from the poor of Latin America to give to one of the richest cities in the world."[130] Prices were reduced by 20%; following this, half-price bus travel became available to Londoners on income support. Livingstone stated the plan "rises on the suggestion of President Hugo Chávez and builds on the work his government is doing around the world in tackling the problems of poverty,"[131] and also said, "This will make it cheaper and easier for people to go about their lives and get the most out of London. The agreement... will also benefit the people of Venezuela, by providing expertise in areas of city management in which London is a world leader."[132] The deal was discontinued in September 2008 by incoming mayor Boris Johnson.
A dispute with the US Embassy in London over payment of the London Congestion Charge escalated on 27 March 2006 when Livingstone criticised the Embassy's decision not to pay. The Embassy argued that the charge is a form of taxation, not a charge for a service, and diplomats and their staff are therefore exempt under the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. Embassy officials have never paid the charge, which was instituted in 2003. Livingstone, however, alleged that the decision was made by Robert Tuttle, who took up the post of Ambassador in July 2005. Livingstone described Tuttle as "one of George Bush's closest cronies and a big funder of his election campaign" and said he was trying to "skive out of [paying] like some chiselling little crook".[133] The group Liberty and Law reported this remark to the Standards Board for England as a breach of its code, but the Board decided not to investigate it.[citation needed]
Germany stopped paying the charge in 2005, Japan followed in 2006, and in 2007 France, Russia, Belgium, and 50 other missions followed suit when the zone extended to their missions' locations (Iran, Sweden and Syria continue to pay the charge). Asked about Japan's refusal to pay in a March 2007 interview on LBC Radio, Livingstone responded, "I think there are several problems with Japan that we could go on about here. Admitting their guilt for all the war crimes would be one thing. So if they've not got round to doing that, I doubt they're too worried about the congestion charge." London's Japanese embassy responded that their government had already apologised for previous war crimes.[134]
Livingstone became involved in a major dispute with Peter Tatchell, who had previously supported him, when he invited the Islamic scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi to a conference on the wearing of the hijab by female students in July 2004. The conference was called following the French law on secularity and conspicuous religious symbols in schools, which particularly affected Muslim girls. Peter Tatchell, who had stood as an independent Livingstone supporter in the 2000 elections, strongly criticised the invitation because of al-Qaradawi's support for "female genital mutilation, wife-beating, the execution of homosexuals in Islamic states, the destruction of the Jewish people, the use of suicide bombs against innocent civilians and the blaming of rape victims who do not dress with sufficient modesty".[135] Livingstone defended the invitation on grounds of Qaradawi's eminence as "one of the most authoritative Muslim scholars in the world today" who "has done most to combat socially regressive interpretations of Islam on issues like women's rights and relations with other religions". He also published a dossier giving a rebuttal to Tatchell.[136][137]
According to Le Monde diplomatique, Livingstone had requested a report to inform himself on al-Qaradawi before his visit. After reading the study, he concluded "nearly all of the lies distorting al-Qaradawi's statements came from the MEMRI institute, which pretends to be an institute of objective research. However, we found out that the MEMRI had been founded by a former Mossad officer, who systematically distorts not only al-Qaradawi's statements, but what many other Muslim scholars say. In most of the cases, disinformation is total, and this is why I published this study."[138]
Peter Tatchell formed part of a coalition of some London-based community groups which objected to al-Qaradawi, but whom Livingstone refused to meet. The Lesbian and Gay Coalition against Racism issued a statement of support for Livingstone signed, among others, by Ben Summerskill of Stonewall and Linda Bellos, which cited his record of support for gay rights "irrespective of the differing views over his meeting with the Muslim scholar Yusuf al-Qaradawi".[139] The row went on for many months, with Livingstone insistent that the mayor of a major diverse city had a duty to maintain close relationships with all faith groups even if he disagreed with some of their views.
In an interview in March 2008, Livingstone stated that he didn't know much about Al-Qaradawi before he came to London and distrusted media reports about him; he also said that he "probably shouldn't" have called Tatchell an Islamophobe.[140] Livingstone and Tatchell have since reconciled, and Tatchell defended Livingstone against accusations of homophobia in February 2012 after he had commented that the Tory Party was "riddled" with homosexuals.[141]
Running as an independent candidate for Mayor in 2000, Livingstone was supported by the Trotskyist group Socialist Action. His decision to appoint members of Socialist Action to his administration during his first term drew criticism in the media.[142] In a January 2008 article that was subsequently spun as revealing a "secret Marxist cell" at the GLA, Atma Singh, a former member of Socialist Action who had been Policy Advisor on Asian Affairs to Ken Livingstone from 2001 to 2007, detailed some of the history and activities of Socialist Action, accusing members of planning a "bourgeois democratic revolution", trying accumulate power and manipulating the Mayor.[143] A subsequent episode of the Channel 4 documentary series Dispatches, "The Court of Ken", presented by journalist Martin Bright, featured Singh and others making these same allegations.[citation needed] The advisers named, including chief of staff Simon Fletcher, deputy chief of staff and director of public affairs and transport Redmond O'Neill, economic adviser John Ross, green adviser Mark Watts and culture adviser Jude Woodward, have refused to state whether or not they are still active as Socialist Action, and a spokesman for Livingstone responded to the charges by referring to Singh's removal from his job for "failure to discharge his duties" and calling Singh "an embittered ex-employee".[144]
Ken Livingstone was criticised in February 2005 for remarks made to an Evening Standard reporter, comparing him to a Nazi concentration camp guard, after the reporter had tried to interview him following a reception marking the 20th anniversary of Chris Smith's coming out as gay. The reporter, Oliver Finegold, was in fact Jewish and said he took offence at the remarks, but Livingstone refused to withdraw the remark and was subsequently accused of antisemitism. Finegold had an audio recorder running.[145] The Evening Standard decided not to run the story at first but the following transcript of the conversation was published by guardian.co.uk:[146]
- Finegold: Mr Livingstone, Evening Standard. How did tonight go?
- Livingstone: How awful for you. Have you thought of having treatment?
- Finegold: How did tonight go?
- Livingstone: Have you thought of having treatment?
- Finegold: Was it a good party? What does it mean for you?
- Livingstone: What did you do before? Were you a German war criminal?
- Finegold: No, I'm Jewish, I wasn't a German war criminal and I'm actually quite offended by that. So, how did tonight go?
- Livingstone: Ah right, well you might be Jewish, but actually you are just like a concentration camp guard, you are just doing it because you are paid to, aren't you?
- Finegold: Great, I have you on record for that. So, how was tonight?
- Livingstone: It's nothing to do with you because your paper is a load of scumbags and reactionary bigots.
- Finegold: I'm a journalist and I'm doing my job. I'm only asking for a comment.
- Livingstone: Well, work for a paper that doesn't have a record of supporting fascism.
The epithet "German war criminal" and Livingstone's subsequent jibes refer to the Standard's then owners, the Daily Mail and General Trust, which endorsed Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists in 1934. Livingstone also claimed the Standard was guilty of "harassment of a predominantly lesbian and gay event".[146] Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell suggested in the Evening Standard that this explanation "came across as patronising. Gay people don't need the Mayor's protection to fend off a journalist asking simple questions."[147] After listening to the recording supplied by Finegold, the London Assembly voted unanimously to ask Livingstone to apologise. Livingstone responded by saying "the form of words I have used are right. I have nothing to apologise for."[148] Deputy Mayor Nicky Gavron, herself the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, said of Livingstone: "These were inappropriate words and very offensive, both to the individual and to Jews in London."[149] Some two dozen complaints were referred to the Standards Board for England, the body responsible for English local government standards, which passed it to the Adjudication Panel for England, which has the power to ban individuals from public office for five years.
The Adjudication Panel addressed the case over two days on the 13 & 14 December 2005[150] and adjourned the hearing for two months. On 24 February 2006, Ken Livingstone was found guilty of bringing his office into disrepute and suspended from office for four weeks, stating that he seemed "to have failed... to have appreciated that his conduct was unacceptable".[151] Livingstone attacked the decision on the grounds that the Adjudication Panel members ought not to suspend a democratically elected official from power, describing their actions as "striking at the heart of democracy". The ban was due to begin on 1 March 2006, but on 28 February, a High Court judge postponed it pending an appeal by Livingstone.[152]
Subsequently the High Court ruled that Livingstone did not bring the office of London mayor into disrepute, the four-week suspension was quashed and the board was ordered to pay Livingstone's estimated £250,000 legal costs. The judge, Mr Justice Andrew Collins, agreed that likening Finegold to a 'German war criminal' was offensive and the comment 'just like a concentration camp guard was 'indefensible', however he added Mr Livingstone had a right to free speech, which 'does extend to abuse'.[153]
Livingstone was criticised following a 21 March 2006 press conference at which Livingstone is alleged to have said of David and Simon Reuben — two Indian-born Jewish businessmen involved in a property development project for the 2012 Olympics — that "if they're not happy they can always go back to Iran and see if they can do better under the Ayatollahs". The Reuben brothers were born in Mumbai, India and are of Iraqi-Jewish ancestry, rather than Iranian, but have carried out work in Iran. Brian Coleman and other Conservative members of the GLA accused Livingstone of anti-Semitism, while The Guardian and The Times ran leaders accusing Livingstone of anti-immigrant remarks. The Guardian wrote that Livingstone's remarks would "shame a loudmouth pub buffoon", and that "The Reuben brothers have as much right to be in Britain as Livingstone himself", while the Times leader said simply "Ken Livingstone is a fool".[154] Livingstone refused calls for him to apologise for his remarks, stating "I would offer a complete apology to the people of Iran to the suggestion that they may be linked in any way to the Reuben brothers. I wasn't meaning to be offensive to the people of Iran."[155] He also accused Coleman of behaving like the Nazi Propaganda Minister, Josef Goebbels.[154] The Standards Board referred the comments to the GLA's monitoring officer, whose investigation exonerated the mayor.[156]
On 5 October 2006 at the High Court of Justice, Mr Justice Collins overturned the decision to suspend Livingstone, regardless of the outcome of his appeal concerning the breach of standards.[157] The final judgement upheld Livingstone's appeal and stated that the Adjudication Panel had misdirected itself, although the judge stated that the Mayor should have apologised.
On 7 December 2006, at a City Hall reception marking the launch of the London Jewish Forum, Livingstone apologised for any offence that he had caused the Jewish community stating
I'd like to apologise for occasions when I may have caused offence to you... I am rude to everyone. Next time just pick up the phone – don't make an official bloody complaint at vast expense.'[158]
In March 2012, Ken Livingstone made controversial comments during a meeting with prominent Jewish Labour supporters, who then wrote a critical letter to Ed Miliband, dismayed at the remarks. The letter stated that, "Ken toward the end of the meeting stated that he did not expect the Jewish community to vote Labour as votes for the left are inversely proportional to wealth levels, and suggested that as the Jewish community is rich we simply wouldn't vote for him." The letter also mentioned that Livingstone used the words Zionist, Jewish and Israeli interchangeably and did so "in a perjorative manner" that was classically anti-Semitic.[159][160] Livingstone originally denied he had made the comments and accused critics of "electioneering".[161] However he later agreed to apologise after a meeting with Labour Leader Ed Miliband and the Jewish Leadership Council.[162] A subsequent article by Livingstone in The Jewish Chronicle acknowledged that, "the way the conversation unfolded meant this interpretation was placed on it" and that he regretted his inadequate responses during the meeting.[161][163]
"Ken never had a very clear political philosophy. Ken never read philosophical books from a political point of view. He had a gut feeling; he was always opposed to exploitation and inequalities in a big way. He had a social conscience and wanted to do something about it. But he saw it within the existing parliamentary and political system. He didn't consider taking up arms against anybody as a way forward or dramatically changing the electoral system. He thought you could persuade and change the Labour Party."
Livingstone describes himself as a socialist, stating in 2007 that "I still believe one day that the idea that the main means of production are owned by private individuals... will be considered as anti-democratic as the idea serfs could be tied to the land. But I will not be alive when that day comes."[165] Although rejecting Marxism, throughout his political career he has worked alongside Marxist far left groups and has become involved with the "politics of the street".[166]
In 2000, the former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock asserted that Livingstone was not tied to any particular political ideology, instead defining him as a "Kennist".[167]
In September 2010, Livingstone criticised the public spending cuts announced by the recently elected Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government, which he stated amounted to £45 billion a year for London alone, and were "beyond Margaret Thatcher's wildest dreams" as well as threatening to result in widespread division and poverty across the capital.[168]
Livingstone married Christine Pamela Chapman in 1973; the marriage ended in divorce in 1982. Around that time he became involved with Kate Allen, now director of Amnesty International in the UK; the couple separated in November 2001.[169]
Livingstone and Emma Beal, also his office manager, have a son, Thomas, born 14 December 2002 at the University College Hospital, London, and a daughter, Mia, born on 20 March 2004 at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead. He also has three other children whose existence was only revealed during the 2008 mayoral election. Neither the children nor their mothers have been named in the media, although it is said that "all the children meet up for Sunday lunch – while his former lovers take it in turns to cook".[170] The children were born to two different women while Livingstone was involved with Kate Allen:
-
- In his memoir, he describes how one was an old friend who was keen to have children but feared she was running out of time. "We had never been involved romantically but I knew her well enough to know she would be a wonderful mother and so I said I would like to be the father of her children." A daughter was born in 1990, and another in 1992. Then another friend said she'd like to have children: "And we agreed to have a baby." Their son was born within weeks of his daughter in 1992.[171]
Livingstone and Beal married on 26 September 2009 in the Mappin Pavilion of London Zoo. They live in North London.[1] Livingstone is a noted bon vivant, having twice worked as a food critic for London's Evening Standard newspaper and various magazines.[172] He is known for his enthusiasm for gardening and keeping and breeding newts. He was the first person to breed the Western Dwarf Clawed Frog Hymenochirus curtipes in captivity.[173] Livingstone is a big fan of The Godfather film franchise, stating that the actions of the criminal organisations within the movies are very much akin to the world of politics.[174]
Although raised into a nominally Christian family, Livingstone renounced religious belief when he was eleven, becoming an atheist. In a 2005 interview he commented that in doing so he had rejected "mumbo-jumbo in favour of rational science."[2] The British Humanist Association identifies him as one of its distinguished supporters.[175]
As a politician comfortable in light-hearted and satirical situations, in 1990, Livingstone was the first MP to appear on the topical panel show Have I Got News For You. For a long time, his first six appearances would stand as the show's record; his current tally of nine – the most recent being in May 2012 – fall one short of the record for guest appearances as a panellist (without appearing as host or team captain) held by Andy Hamilton.
In 1993, he appeared on the sitcom Drop the Dead Donkey playing himself in a live debate with Teddy Taylor. The same year he was also interviewed for Thirty Years in the TARDIS, a documentary celebration of the 30th anniversary of the television science-fiction series Doctor Who.
In 1995, Livingstone appeared on the track "Ernold Same" by the band Blur, taken from the album The Great Escape. Livingstone provided spoken word vocals and was listed as 'The Right On Ken Livingstone.' He appeared at the 2000 Meltdown festival curated by Scott Walker providing vocals during Blur's performance of "Ernold Same".
Livingstone appeared in one of a series of advertisements extolling the virtues of cheese in the 1980s, appropriately endorsing red Leicester. On the other side of politics, Edward Heath advertised Danish Blue. Their respective choices were a result of their parties' official colours – red for the Labour Party, and blue for the Conservative Party.[176]
Ken Livingstone is also the subject of a Kate Bush song called "Ken", b-side to single "Love and Anger" which was written for the episode of The Comic Strip entitled "GLC: The Carnage Continues...".
Ken Livingstone appeared on Lee Mack's team on episode 2 of the third series of the panel show Would I Lie To You?.
- ^ a b BBC News 2009.
- ^ a b c Bunder and Livingstone 2005.
- ^ a b Owen 2008.
- ^ Mulholland 2010.
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- ^ [2]
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- Books
- Carvel, John (1999). Turn Again Livingstone. Profile Books. ISBN 978-1-86197-131-9.
- Hosken, Andrew (2008). Ken: The Ups and Downs of Ken Livingstone. Arcadia Books. ISBN 978-1-905147-72-4.
- Livingstone, Ken (1987). If Voting Changed Anything They'd Abolish it. London: Collins. ISBN 0-00-217770-6.
- Livingstone, Ken (1989). Livingstone's Labour. London: HarperCollins. ISBN [[Special:BookSources/978044403463|978044403463]].
- Livingstone, Ken (2011). You Can't Say That. ISBN [[Special:BookSources/0-571-28038-4|0-571-28038-4]].
- Turner, Alwyn W. (2010). Rejoice! Rejoice! Britain in the 1980s. London: Aurum Press. ISBN 978-1-84513-525-6.
- News articles
- Interviews
| Persondata |
| Name |
Livingstone, Kenneth Robert |
| Alternative names |
Ken Livingstone |
| Short description |
British politician, former Mayor of London |
| Date of birth |
1945-06-17 |
| Place of birth |
Lambeth, London, England |
| Date of death |
|
| Place of death |
|
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