Mayor hits back over Nazi claim

Ken Livingstone could be suspended from office

The controversy surrounding London mayor Ken Livingstone's Nazi insult to a Jewish reporter was "orchestrated", he has claimed.

Speaking to the SomethingJewish website, he claims the Board of Deputies, the Tories and the Evening Standard were behind the campaign.

In February, he branded a Standard reporter as "like a concentration camp guard" after being door-stepped.

The mayor is to face a disciplinary hearing over the comments.

If found guilty by the Standards Board for England and Wales, he could be banned from public office for five years.

So all these things came together to be able to put the boot in for Ken Livingstone, and I have to say it was really stupid London mayor Ken Livingstone

Asked if he thought the episode was a witch-hunt, he said: "It was quite clearly orchestrated."

He also accused the Evening Standard of being worried about his forthcoming decision on whether to allow other newspapers to be sold at Tube and bus stations - opening the door for a possible rival publication.

Mr Livingstone explained: "Three things came together - the Board of Deputies wanted me to keep quiet.

"Then the Tory Party at the time was trying to run this ridiculous campaign that Labour is deeply anti-Semitic - that Fagin poster [during the General Election].

"And of course the Standard's very nervous about the fact that I will shortly be able to let the contract for the rival evening paper.

"So all these things came together to be able to put the boot in for Ken Livingstone - and I have to say it was really stupid."

Spineless politician

In the interview he also refutes he is anti-Semitic or anti-Zionist.

In March this year he called Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon a war criminal and accused the country of the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.

He told the website he was not anti-Israel but added: "This government is the worst Israel has ever had - there was a chance of peace but Sharon has relentlessly ground down everybody else."

He added: "The Board of Deputies - and the Jewish Chronicle is their mouthpiece - have this idea that anyone who's critical of Israel gets denounced as being anti-Semitic, so as a result the average spineless politician never says anything about the Middle East again."

He also spoke about the theory that he might have Jewish roots.

"We know my grandmother was born in 1888 in London, which was the exactly the time that vast numbers of refugees were coming in from the Tzar," he said.

"So it could have been. As I said, religion has played no part in my life. But it would be fun to know. Then I could be a self-hater, couldn't I?"