Ken Livingstone faces backlash over Jimmy Savile comments

Ken Livingstone has today refused to withdraw comments he made comparing Dan Jarvis’ fundraising arrangements to Jimmy Savile, as party figures call on the former Mayor of London to apologise.

Livingstone made the comments after it was revealed that Dan Jarvis accepted a £16,800 political donation from hedge fund manager Martin Taylor.

“If you’re really Labour, what are you doing taking thousands of pounds in donations from hedge fund managers? Hedge fund managers are some of the most rapacious and damaging form of capitalists that we have. It’s absolutely bizarre,” Livingstone said.

“It’s like Jimmy Savile funding a children’s group.”

Today Taylor, who donated £600,000 to Labour under Ed Miliband and has also given £60,000 to Sadiq Khan’s mayoral campaign, has written to Livingstone about the comments. Taylor says that Livingstone made “a number of claims which are both untrue and highly offensive”.

In another letter, Livingstone’s fellow NEC member Johanna Baxter has called on him to apologise for the remarks. You can read both letters in full below.

It also transpired today that Livingstone was paid £8,000 by a hedge fund for speaking to their clients in 2008. Livingstone told ITV that this was “not double standards”, but “different standards” for him and Jarvis.

In January, Livingstone was forced to apologise for calling Labour MP Kevan Jones, who suffers from depression, “disturbed” – after refusing to say sorry on several occasions.

Martin Taylor letter to Ken Livingstone

Johanna Baxter letter to Ken Livingstone