Ken Livingstone and Ed Miliband have held face to face discussions about Lutfur Rahman’s future in the Labour party, an official Labour mayoral spokesman has confirmed to Uncut.

Responding to yesterday’s Uncut story that Livingstone would push for Rahman’s readmission to the party at this month’s NEC meeting, the spokesman said, “Yes, Ed and Ken have met and discussed the issue. I’m not going to go into the details. It was a private meeting”.

The spokesman denied that Livingstone planned to raise the issue at the NEC meeting scheduled for the 30th, but refused to deny that he planned to raise it at a future date. When asked specifically if the denial meant  that Livingstone was not pushing for Rahman’s readmission at all, or simply that he did not plan to raise it on the 30th, the spokesman replied, “let me seek clarification, and I’ll get back to you”. The spokesman subsequently called back, and responded, “Ken will not be raising the issue of Lutfur Rahman at the NEC meeting on November 30”.

When asked on 5 successive occasions to confirm or deny whether Ken Livingstone wanted Lutfur Rahman readmitted to the Labour party, the spokesman responded “We’re not going to get into hypotheticals on what’s going to happen in the future to Lutfur Rahman”.

When asked if the fact Ken Livingstone had raised the issue with Ed Miliband indicated that it was significant rather than hypothetical, the spokesman responded, “That’s your interpretation”.

The spokesman added, “The reality is that the position re the NEC on the 30th is the complete reverse of the story you printed”.

Asked if that meant that Ken Livingstone had accepted Rahman’s exclusion from the Labour party, the spokesman replied, “No”.