Ken Livingstone puts his foot in his mouth yet again

THE TIMES: KEN LIVINGSTONE has accused Trevor Phillips, Britain’s race equality chief, of becoming so right wing that he could “join the BNP”.

The bitter attack, made during a live radio interview, was immediately denounced by the Tories as disgraceful, and led to calls for an apology. It follows the furore caused by Mr Livingstone, the Mayor of London, when he compared a Jewish journalist to a Nazi concentration camp guard.

Mr Livingstone made the BNP gibe after Mr Phillips, the head of the Commission for Racial Equality, made a speech in which he said that mass immigration was changing the face of Britain, and that the costs of it could no longer be ignored. In a series of controversial statements, Mr Phillips has also criticised multiculturalism, said that Muslims who want Sharia (Muslim law) should leave Britain and that Britain is “sleepwalking to segregation” between its ethnic communities. Race chief could be in the BNP, says Livingstone by Anthony Browne

Mark Alexander