KEN Livingstone's suspension from the Labour Party this afternoon will not see his headline appearance at the Swindon Festival of Literature cancelled.

Festival organiser Matt Holland said Livingstone's appearance on Tuesday, May 10, was now more important than ever.

The former Mayor of London was suspended from the party on Thursday afternoon amid a media storm where he locked himself in a disabled toilet after defending an MP at the centre of an anti-Semitic row.

The situation escalated after the Labour MP John Mann called Livingstone a "Nazi apologist" after he claimed Hitler supported Zionism prior to the Holocaust.

Speaking shortly after Mr Livingstone was formally suspended from the party festival organiser Mr Holland said he neither approved or disapproved of the comments, but said that the festival was the perfect arena for people to debate the matter with Mr Livingstone.

Mr Hollland, who also organises Holocaust Memorial Day, said: "It will make more people want to come, but alas they are too late – our second biggest theatre is now sold out.

"If ever a literature festival was for anything, it is to pool ideas and especially controversial ones. There is nothing more civilised than doing it calmly, on stage with people who are interested in a much less provocative situation and edited way than through the media.

"The Festival of Literature is at the heart of civilised communication - and this is not me saying I either approve or disapprove – the more controversial a matter the more important it is to be discussed.

"I would urge everyone who has a ticket to come with their questions prepared."