Politician to visit Beccles for talk on 40-year career

Hard left politician Ken Livingstone will be heading to Beccles this summer to talk about his forty years in politics.

A former Mayor of London, Member of Parliament and one-time leader of the Greater London Council, Mr Livingstone announced his retirement from frontline politics after losing last May’s London Mayoral election to Boris Johnson, something he described as “the defeat I most regret.”

But instead of putting his feet up, Mr Livingstone is heading out on the road to discuss his extraordinary political career in An Audience With Ken Livingstone.

He will be at Beccles Public Hall on Sunday, June 5, at 2.30pm and the afternoon will include a “no holds barred” question and answer session.

Dubbed ‘Red-Ken’ by the media in the 1980s, Mr Livingstone went on to clash with Margaret Thatcher who promptly turfed him out of a job by abolishing the Greater London Council.

He became Labour MP for Brent and then in 2000 became the first elected Mayor of London. He was lavished with public praise for upgrading the city’s transport system, introducing the congestion charge, the Oyster card and bus and cycle lanes. He also oversaw the bid that led to the 2012 Summer Olympics. However he lost two mayoral elections to Conservative candidate Boris Johnson.

A polarising figure in British politics, Mr Livingstone is the author of two autobiographies - If Voting Changed Anything, They’d Abolish It (1987) and You Can’t Say That (2012).

Tickets are available now from the Beccles Public Hall website at www.becclespublichall.com, from the box office open Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm or by calling 01502 770060.

Have you got a Beccles story? Email amy.smith@archant.co.uk or call 01502 712060.