Livingstone causes row over Saudi royals comments
Outspoken London mayor Ken Livingstone has come in for some heavy criticism over remarks he made about the Saudi royal family.
Mr Livingstone said he longs for the day when the Saudi royal family are hanging from lamp-posts in an interview with The Guardian newspaper.
He also attacked US policy in the Middle East, accusing the White House of forming a “network of corruption” with oil sheikhdoms and oil companies.
Conservative mayoral candidate Steve Norris called the comments a “dangerous rant” and Lib Dems rival Simon Hughes condemned the remarks as “deeply unhelpful, offensive and inappropriate”.
“I just long for the day I wake up and find that the Saudi royal family are swinging from lamp-posts and they’ve got a proper government that represents the people of Saudi Arabia,” Mr Livingstone said.
Mr Norris claimed that the remarks amounted to ‘incitement’ and warned that they could have serious consequences for the country at a time when there is a serious terrorist threat.
Mr Livingstone told the newspaper that he wanted Israeli leader Ariel Sharon put in prison in a cell next to former Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic and called for a hike in income tax to 50 per cent for earnings over £100,000.
He also urged the public to maintain some “perspective” on the issue of potential terrorist attacks on the capital.
“Terrorists will get through. They will take lives. But put it in the perspective that this year we will kill 300 people in road accidents in this city; and on that basis no one would leave their homes in the morning,” the mayor said.
Mr Livingstone was only recently readmitted to the Labour Party after he was barred for standing against the party’s official candidate, Frank Dobson, in the last London mayoral election. A spokesman for the Labour Party has referred enquiries about the comments to the mayor’s office.
A spokesman for the mayor said: “For the whole of his political career Ken Livingstone has been a forthright politician who speaks his mind and Londoners have not so far found this a problem – on the contrary, most people prefer to have someone in office who doesn’t always toe the line.”
