Ken Livingstone today used a press conference at City Hall to publicly challenge the right of the Adjudication Panel to suspend him from office following comments he made to a reporter branding it an “attack on the democratic rights of Londoners”.
The Mayor also highlighted that both the Standards Board and Government had accepted that in future only illegal actions and matters arising from official duties should fall within their remit.
In typically combative form the Mayor dismissed aspects of the media coverage as a “gigantic fuss” criticising Associated Newspapers for going against the tide of condemnation of the panel’s decision.
Defending his record on equal rights Livingstone highlighted the fact that he had promoted people from all ethnic and religious groups to the “very highest” levels of his administration.
Defending himself against the specific charge that he was anti-Semitic the Mayor said there was a tendency to hurl the accusation at people in an attempt to “try to suppress any meaningful” discussion of the policies of Israel.
