London ? An emotional Mayor Ken Livingstone apologized Thursday for his city’s role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, saying London was still tainted by it.

The notoriously outspoken Livingstone seldom apologizes for anything, but he choked up as he read an account of the brutal tortures suffered by slaves in Britain’s Caribbean colonies. And the politician nicknamed “Red Ken” for his left-leaning views angrily denounced the role of his city’s corporations in financing the trade.