The taxpayer has been left to foot a £200,000 bill for Ken Livingstone’s outburst against an Evening Standard journalist, it has been revealed.
• The legal costs arise from the Standards Board investigation into the conduct of the London Mayor. This follows offensive remarks made to Evening Standard journalist, Oliver Finegold, by Livingstone. Leaving a party at City Hall, he likened the journalist to a German war criminal and then a concentration camp guard because he was Jewish and worked for the same group as the Daily Mail.
• Following a complaint to the Standards Board by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, Livingstone was suspended from office for his actions. Yet he was able to mount a High Court challenge on the technicality of whether he was ‘on duty’ as an elected representative when he made the remarks.
• Answers to new Parliamentary Questions have now revealed that the legal costs of the Standards Board investigation into the Labour Mayor have now hit £198,000; the previous estimate, prior to all the legal bills coming in, was £77,000.
Bob Neill MP, Conservative Shadow Minister for London, said:
“Ken Livingstone has no concern for how taxpayers’ money is spent. His levy on council tax bills has passed £300 a year, yet he wastes it on state propaganda, non-jobs and propping up international socialists. Now the public have to foot a £200,000 legal bill for his offensive remarks.
“This also calls into question the whole purpose of the discredited Standards Board. The answer isn’t for an unelected quango to discipline the Mayor. Instead, Livingstone deserves a kick in the ballot box next May for the way he treats taxpayers with contempt.”