Ken Livingstone lands role co-convening Labour’s defence policy review

Ken Livingstone will co-convene Labour’s review into defence policy, it emerged last night. Livingstone is a strong ally of Jeremy Corbyn and a longstanding opponent of the Trident nuclear defence system, which puts him at odds with Shadow Defence Secretary Maria Eagle, who will lead the review.

Each review into departmental policy is co-convened by a members of the National Executive Committee, with positions decided at yesterday’s NEC meeting: Livingstone will work on defence, while it is also known that Ellie Reeves will work on the home affairs review. LabourList will bring you more on this as it transpires.

Former London Mayor Livingstone revealed his role at the launch of the Left Book Club last night, in a move that many believe will heighten the chances of Labour adopting a policy to scrap Trident.

Speaking on Russia Today last week, Livingstone claimed that the majority of Labour MPs are opposed to Trident, and that public endorsements for it are not “rational”. He said:

“Most Labour MPs don’t believe that Trident is worth spending £20 billion on. They just worry that it will be the Tory press demonising us as pro-Russian, or weaklings, things like that. It’s not a serious, rational judgement.”

However, Maria Eagle said recently that she was “unlikely” to change her mind on her support for Trident.