Ken Livingstone said he and Jeremy Corbyn have "exactly the same views" before repeating his comments about Adolf Hitler, which led to his resignation from the Labour Party yesterday.

The former London mayor said: "I've known Jeremy for 45 years. I can't ever recall a time when me and Jeremy disagreed on policy. We have exactly the same views."

Mr Livingstone was suspended from Labour in 2016 for claiming Adolf Hitler supported Zionism in the 1930s.

Speaking to LBC's Nick Ferrari, Mr Livingstone defended his comments, saying: "I can't retract something that's a simple historical fact. People don't always want to hear the truth."

"Hitler did a deal in 1933 because he wanted to get the Jews out of Germany ," he said - while refuting reports that he had called Hitler a Zionist.

Asked whether the Labour leader also shared those views, Mr Livingstone said: "You'd have to do an interview with him."

Yesterday, Mr Livingstone resigned from the Labour Party as he said the issues around his suspension for making allegedly anti-Semitic remarks had become a “distraction”.

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour leader, said the former Mayor of London’s resignation from the party was “sad” but also “the right thing to do”.