KEN LIVINGSTONE was back on a collision course with Labour’s leadership last night after he defied Tony Blair’s demand for him to apologise for an allegedly anti-Semitic outburst that has cast a shadow over London’s 2012 Olympic bid.
Members of Labour’s powerful National Executive Committee, who have the power to expel party members, said that the Mayor of London could face disciplinary action if he did not withdraw comments in which he likened a Jewish reporter to a “concentration camp guard”.
The Prime Minister’s intervention came on the second day of the four-day visit by an inspection team from the International Olympic Committee to assess the capital’s bid for the 2012 Games.
Mr Blair, asked on 5 television if Mr Livingstone should say sorry, said: “Yes, it’s a simple answer. A lot of us get angry with journalists from time to time, but in the circumstances in which the journalist was a Jewish journalist, yes, he should apologise. He should apologise and move on.”
Pressure is growing on Mr Livingstone from all wings of the Labour Party to climb down only 12 months after his suspension from the party was lifted. Mr Livingstone was expelled for breaking his promise in March 2000 not to stand against a Labour candidate in the mayoral election.
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A senior member of the NEC, who declined to be named, said: “If Livingstone fails to apologise or to make amends by explaining himself, the NEC will have a duty to investigate the issue.”
Mark Seddon, a member of the NEC who has been a vocal supporter of Mr Livingstone, said: “Ken has a great record on race relations. I do not for one minute think he is anti-Semitic. But these remarks are unacceptable. The NEC will have to tell him to apologise. If he does not his reselection as a Labour Party candidate could be re-examined and called into question.”
Mr Livingstone, whose signature is on all the bid documents, was among the team who began detailed presentations yesterday morning to the 13 IOC inspectors.
Tony McNulty, the Transport Minister with special responsibility for London, speaking minutes after addressing the IOC team, said: “The remarks were offensive, gratuitous and insensitive and he should apologise.”
Mike Lee, the London 2012 communications director, said at a press conference: “This issue is a matter for the mayor to resolve. Tessa Jowell (Culture Secretary) and Tony Blair have said what should happen next. It’s clear that it’s time for him to apologise.”
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A spokesman for the Board of Deputies of British Jews said: “The offence taken to Ken Livingstone’s comments is clearly not limited to the Jewish community. The public is clearly of the opinion that he should apologise.”
Lord Janner of Braunstone, the Labour peer who was a British Army war crimes investigator, said: “(Livingstone’s) remarks were totally offensive and disgraceful. I cannot think of anything more offensive or disgusting for Mr Livingstone to say.
“The Prime Minister is the leader of Mr Livingstone’s party and if he doesn’t listen to his party leader on an issue such as this then he should resign as Mayor of London. There is a real danger now that he is damaging London’s Olympic prospects.”
Mr Livingstone, in a terse statement, said that he “was not making further comment on this issue at the present time” as he was dealing with the IOC visit. The statement repeated his insistence that he despised anti-Semitism with the same virulence as all other forms of racism.
The Conservatives on the London Assembly have lodged a formal complaint with the Commission for Racial Equality. Bob Neill, the Tory leader, said: “As London’s senior civic leader the mayor has an explicit responsibility to promote ever-better race relations. I believe that in his failure to apologise he has abjectly failed to do that and may in fact have badly damaged them.”