Northern Ireland

How Ken Livingstone's support for republicans led to loyalist assassination plots

Ken Livingstone, who invited Gerry Adams to London, was targeted by loyalists for his republican sympathies
Ken Livingstone, who invited Gerry Adams to London, was targeted by loyalists for his republican sympathies
By Allan Preston

A figurehead for the Labour left over four decades, Ken Livingstone often courted controversy in Northern Ireland for his support of republicans.

Now aged 78, his family have announced the former London Mayor is living with Alzheimer’s disease.

Rising to prominence after taking control of Greater London Council in 1981, ‘Red Ken’ became a thorn in the side of the Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

Advocating for a united Ireland, he met with the mother of a hunger striker, Thomas McElwee, and publicly declared his support for the prisoners on hunger strike.

He later agreed to meet Gerry Adams in 1982 when he was invited to London by Labour members of the Troops Out campaign.

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On the same day the invitation was issued, the INLA bombed the Droppin Well bar in Ballykelly resulting in the deaths of 11 soldiers and six civilians.

Mr Adams was denied entry to Britain before Mr Livingstone travelled to west Belfast for a meeting with Mr Adams in 1983 where he received a hero’s welcome.

The following year, not long after the IRA’s Brighton Bomb nearly killed Margaret Thatcher, Mr Livingstone and future Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn issued a new invitation for Mr Adams to speak in London.

Ken Livingstone is living with Alzheimer’s disease, his family have said (Victoria Jones/PA)
Ken Livingstone is living with Alzheimer’s disease, his family have said (Victoria Jones/PA)

Also known to some unionists as ‘Green Ken’ over his support for republicans, he became the focus of assassination plots by loyalist paramilitaries.

Other controversies included an interview on Irish radio where he proclaimed that Britain’s 800-year occupation of Ireland was more destructive than the Holocaust.

During his time as London mayor, he won praise for his leadership after the July 2005 suicide bombings and for helping to secure the 2012 Olympic games.

His time with Labour ultimately ended in 2018 when he quit over allegations of anti-semitism.

This followed claims Mr Livingstone had made that Adolf Hitler had originally backed Zionism in the 1930s.