Ken Livingstone: Corbyn and I have 'exactly the same views'

Ken Livingstone says he and Jeremy Corbyn have "exactly the same views" before repeating his comments about Adolf Hitler, which led to his resignation from the Labour Party yesterday.

The former London mayor said: "I've known Jeremy for 45 years. I can't ever recall a time when me and Jeremy disagreed on policy. We have exactly the same views."

Mr Livingstone was suspended from Labour in 2016 for claiming Adolf Hitler supported Zionism in the 1930s.

Speaking to LBC's Nick Ferrari, Mr Livingstone once defended his comments, saying: "I can't retract something that's a simple historical fact. People don't always want to hear the truth."

"Hitler did a deal in 1933 because he wanted to get the Jews out of Germany ," he said - while refuting reports that he had called Hitler a Zionist. 

Asked whether the Labour leader also shared those views, Mr Livingstone said: "You'd have to do an interview with him."

Yesterday, Mr Livingstone resigned from the Labour Party as he said the issues around his suspension for making allegedly anti-Semitic remarks had become a “distraction”.

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, said the former Mayor of London’s resignation from the party was “sad” but also “the right thing to do”.

Mr Livingstone refused to rule out a return to Labour, and said quitting the party leaves him free to be more active than he was during his suspension.

He said he found it "frustrating" last year when "we had a general election and I couldn't campaign for it. When we have the next election, I will be all over the country meeting with Labour candidates."

He added that, during the latest local election, he " would have loved to have gone to Barnet, which was a key marginal" - but could not campaign for the party because of his suspension.

This month the Conservatives regained control of key Labour target council Barnet as some voters appeared to punish Jeremy Corbyn's party for the anti-Semitism controversy.

Mr Livingstone said the reaction to his words about Hitler were a "distraction" and that he has left the party because he did not want the issue to carry on for another two or three years.