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Red Ken claims Hitler 'collaborated' with Zionists before the Second World War as he faces expulsion from Labour 

• Ken Livingstone is facing Labour misconduct hearing in Westminster today
• Could be expelled from the party after comments about Hitler's Zionist links
• Ex-London Mayor arrived for hearing saying dictator 'collaborated' with Zionists

By James Tapsfield, Political Editor For Mailonline

PUBLISHED: 08:33 EDT, 30 March 2017 | UPDATED: 12:48 EDT, 30 March 2017

Ken Livingstone defended on his claims about Hitler's links to Zionists today - insisting they had been 'collaborating' right up to the Second World War.

The former London Mayor defended his incendiary comments as he arrived for a misconduct hearing that could see him expelled from the Labour.

Mr Livingstone was suspended from the party in April last year after claiming that Hitler supported Zionism in the 1930s 'before he went mad and ended up killing six million jews'.

He was then embroiled in a furious on-camera confrontation with Labour MP John Mann who accused him of being a 'Nazi apologist' and 'disgrace'.

But arriving in Westminster for the hearing of Labour's national constitutional committee, which could last could last up to two days, Mr Livingstone insisted he had nothing to apologise for.

'I simply said, back in 1933 Hitler's government signed a deal with the Zionist movement, which would mean that Germany's Jewish community were moved to what is now Israel,' he told reporters.

'They started selling Mauser pistols to the independent Jewish army.

'You had, right up until the start of the Second World War, real collaboration.'