My administration will tackle these issues in consultation with the black communities of London. – Ken Livingstone
I’ve always been a workaholic. I reckon, on average, I’ve had less than one day a year off in my working career. – Ken Livingstone
The people I really most admire are Robert Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt. If you know someone, it is very hard to revere them. – Ken Livingstone
I employed my wife for three years to sit in the attic and type up my autobiography, 700 pages, organise everywhere I go. I’m paying the normal rate of tax on the money I take out for myself. – Ken Livingstone
I Kenneth Robert Livingstone, having been elected to the office of mayor of London, declare that I take that office upon myself, and will duly and faithfully fulfil the duties of it to the best of my judgement and ability. – Ken Livingstone
I have only ever borrowed money for investment. I have been sound money all my life. – Ken Livingstone
I could not cherish London and not value Jewish London. The contribution of Jews to London is immense – politically, economically, culturally, intellectually, philanthropically, artistically. – Ken Livingstone
When I was leader of the GLC, by the time I had been in control for three years, the difference in pay between the cleaner and the director general was a four-to-one ratio. I find that attractive. – Ken Livingstone
All the politics of the post-war period was about the clash between the Soviet Union and America, and virtually all issues ended up being subordinated to that. Now, the question is, what is the most a socialist can achieve in a global economy? – Ken Livingstone
I can’t understand why anyone would want to live the life of a politician if you can’t say pretty much what you think. You are not in it for the money: there’s unremitting pressure on your life, you give up so much of your privacy. It can only be because of the things you want to do and the things you want to say. – Ken Livingstone
I was a weedy kid, not like one of those working-class men who can accommodate not being academically clever by physical strength and prowess. – Ken Livingstone
I’ve got people handling the media. I employ at the moment two people. No-one is paying income tax on the money they use to employ people. – Ken Livingstone
The press keep asking me, ‘What was your biggest mistake?’ But if I had made a big mistake, they’d all be writing about it, wouldn’t they? – Ken Livingstone
If women had never been given the right to vote, then Labour would have won every election after the war. – Ken Livingstone
I do explicitly see Jewish people as a people – not either a religion or an ethnicity but a people. – Ken Livingstone
I’m never going to take the view that I should say whatever I need to say in order to achieve something. Because that implies a level of dishonesty. – Ken Livingstone
I undertake that, in the exercise of my functions of that office I will have regard to any guidance with respect to ethical standards issued by the secretary of state under Section 66 of the Greater London Authority Act 1999. – Ken Livingstone
I spent the 1960s and 1970s seeking myself – the working-class tradition of self-education. – Ken Livingstone
