Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on Tuesday morning called on Mr Livingstone – newly appointed to a post in the shadow cabinet – to apologise.
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Displaying a lamentable lack of judgment and taste, Livingstone reacted in objectionable fashion when he reacted to the criticisms, which happened to come from a Labour MP, who has won enormous respect for the way in which he has spoken candidly and movingly about mental health problems he has experienced in the past.
Mr Livingstone is to consider the contentious issue of whether Labour should renew the UK’s Trident nuclear weapons system – but he blasted back after Mr Jones criticised his appointment.
Within moments of Red Ken getting the gig, the BBC was reporting that his co-chair – shadow defence secretary Maria Eagle was “furious”.
Mr Livingstone, the former Mayor of London, eventually apologised for the remarks about North Durham MP Kevan Jones – which the MP does not accept – after a row broke out between the two over Labour defence policy.
“Mr Livingstone was rude about me, I used to be primitive back to him, he has to get over it”, he said.
I don’t believe we have ever met but I Chair the South Shields Labour Party, am a former Leader of the Labour Party in the European Parliament and a former Member of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party.
Speaking exclusively to the Mirror, the ex-Mayor of London claimed: “I think he might need a few psychiatric help”.
“But then of course he makes appointments – just talking about Ken Livingstone – and people around him who have an entirely different view of which way the Labour Party should proceed”.
“They should not have been made at all, let alone in this context”, he said.
Livingstone tweeted his apology after Corbyn – who has made mental health issues a priority in his platform – urged him to say sorry.
Livingstone, who got Jones’s name wrong three times by calling him “Jeremy”, added: “You provoked this row”.
“An individual’s mental health should never be the excuse for insults, jibes or political point-scoring”.
Mr Jones admitted to a history of depression in the Commons in 2012.
He said: “The witch-hunt turns on Ken Livingstone”.
He apologised after the Labour leader’s spokesman said Mr Corbyn was “incredibly concerned that people with mental health problems shouldn’t be stigmatised” and Mr Livingstone “should apologise” immediately.
“I think (the public) are bewildered, and Jeremy has got a very short period of time – in politics short spaces of time are 18 months/two years – to actually demonstrate that he wants to be prime minister, that he knows how to be prime minister, and, if he was, people would feel confident in what he said and he did”.
EM: Wait a sec, does that mean it’s their fault for being offended, or that you’re genuinely sorry you offended them?
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The row once again highlighted the deep rift within the Labour Party between Mr Corbyn’s supporters and a large swathe of the party’s MPs. But before long, Livingstone was back on the television air waves for a fresh confrontation with Jones on Channel 4 News.
