IAN Murray, the Shadow Scottish Secretary, has called on Ken Livingstone to quit as co-chairman of Labour’s defence review and “remove himself from frontline Labour politics” following the veteran leftwinger’s controversial comments on the 7/7 London bombings.
Mr Livingstone, a former London Mayor and a close ally of Jeremy Corbyn, has received widespread criticism for blaming former Prime Minister Tony Blair for the deaths of 52 people on the streets of the UK capital in 2005. Last week on BBC TV’s Question Time, Mr Livingstone, 70, said: "When Tony Blair was told by the security services - 'if you go into Iraq, we will be a target for terrorism' - and he ignored that advice and it killed 52 Londoners.
"If we had not invaded Iraq, those four men would not have gone out and killed 52 Londoners. We know that."
Later, he added: “Go and look what they put on their website. They did those killings because of our invasion of Iraq. They gave their lives; they said what they believed. They took Londoners' lives in protest against our invasion of Iraq.”
The leftwinger’s remarks sparked a number of attacks from Labour MPs and he was berated for his words during Monday evening’s meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party meeting by, among other people, Jack Dromey, the shadow policing minister.
Speaking on the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire Show, Mr Murray branded Mr Livingstone an “apologist for terrorism” and said he should quit his role in the party’s defence review and apologise for his remarks.
“It’s deeply regretful that we’re going through a huge, sensible and adult debate at the moment about the Middle East, about Syria, about Iraq, about terrorism – there are people on the streets of Britain today fearful about what may happen...and for a senior, respected politician to go onto Question Time and say such dreadful, shameful things is unacceptable,” declared the Edinburgh MP.
He went on: “Ken Livingstone should not only apologise but also he should remove himself from that defence review...That seems to me like an apologist for terrorism...Ken Livingstone should do the right thing: remove himself from frontline Labour politics and apologise,” added the Shadow Secretary of State.
But the ex-MP hit back, insisting he was not going to say sorry for telling the truth.
“Those four suicide bombers, the message they left was that they were doing this because of our involvement in Iraq,” he declared.
There was further criticism from Labour backbencher Angela Smith, who said Mr Livingstone’s remarks about the 7/7 bombings were entirely unacceptable and that most people would find his words appalling.
Echoing Mr Murray, she said: “He’s made himself unfit to co-chair the defence review and he should resign.”
Meantime, relatives of the victims of the 2005 terror attacks were also unhappy with Mr Livingstone’s words with one saying they were "the comment of a stupid man who just wants to upset people". Another said by insisting the terrorists had a cause, the former mayor was legitimising terrorism. “It is shameful self-publicising,” they added.
But the leftwinger warned people against believing the interpretation put on his comments by newspapers.
“I denounced what the bombers did at the time; I denounce it today but we have to recognise they didn’t do it without a political reason,” argued Mr Livingstone, who added: “I’m not going to apologise for a lie that’s being perpetrated in the media.”
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