The news that Ken Livingstone, a Labor figurehead for 40 years, is “living with Alzheimer’s disease” follows a hugely successful but divisive career in politics.
Here is a timeline of key moments in his life and career:
– June 17, 1945: Ken Livingstone was born in south London.
– 1969: Mr Livingstone joins the Labor Party.
– 1971: He is elected to Lambeth Borough Council.
– 1973: He gets a seat on the Greater London Council (GLC).
– 1981: Labor takes control of the GLC and Mr Livingstone is elected leader.
– 1986: After several heated arguments with Margaret Thatcher’s Tory government, the GLC is abolished.
– 1987: Mr Livingstone is elected MP for Brent East.
– 2000: He is running against the official Labor candidate Frank Dobson for mayor of London.
– 2004: He wins the post again after being readmitted to the Labor Party.
– 2006: A Supreme Court judge finds that Mr Livingstone made “unnecessarily offensive” and “indefensible” comments in which he compared a Jewish reporter to a Nazi concentration camp guard. But he is acquitted of bringing the mayor’s office into disrepute.
– 2008: Mr Livingstone loses town hall to Tory Boris Johnson.
– 2012: He is defeated again by Mr Johnson for mayor.
– 2016: He is suspended from the Labor Party for claiming that Hitler supported Zionism in the 1930s “before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews”.
– 2017: The former mayor avoids expulsion from the Labor Party in a disciplinary hearing, but is suspended for another year.
– March 2018: His suspension will be extended again as a new disciplinary investigation is launched.
– May 2018: Mr Livingstone resigns from the Labor Party.
– January 2022: He applies to join the Green Party, but his application is rejected.
– September 20, 2023: Mr Livingstone’s family confirm he suffers from Alzheimer’s disease.
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Source : www.newschainonline.com