Shadow Business Secretary Clive Lewis told a national Union of Jewish Students (UJS) Conference in London on Sunday his comments were "quite frankly, outrageous and wrong."
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| Lewis addresses UJS Conference |
Mr Lewis claimed Ken Livingstone was a “hero” who spent his life “at the front of liberation politics” before causing outrage by openly stating “Hitler supported Zionism … [before going] mad and killing six million Jews.”
“But I look at Livingstone’s political career in its entirety, as someone on the Left, as someone who for many years saw him as a hero.”
Formerly Shadow Defence Secretary himself, Mr Lewis - who claimed to have been victim to “racism" - admitted the previous mayor's refusal to apologise so far “does call into question” why his membership hasn’t been stripped.
Issuing a plea to Mr Livingstone, he stated: “It is incumbent upon him to apologise and disown the comments that he made.”
Mr Lewis also expressed his sadness that “many” Jewish Labour members feel politically “homeless”.
“People with my opinions in the Labour Party are the majority, the vast majority,” he said. It is a “small minority” who hold “anti-Semitic views” that are being “pushed out”, he explained.
Mr Lewis later promised to ask Labour Party Leader Jeremy Corbyn to respond more quickly and properly to intimidation and Anti-Semitic sentiments in Oxford University Union. The student who made the request was unavailable at the time of publication.
Conference Delegates, from University Jewish Societies across the UK, then passed a motion to increase education on "tackling Anti-Semitism in Labour Clubs."
