Conservatives demand Blair disciplines Livingstone
The political row surrounding London Mayor Ken Livingstone has escalated tonight, with the Conservatives calling on Tony Blair to impose party sanctions.
The London Assembly this morning passed two motions calling on Mr Livingstone to withdraw remarks made to a Jewish journalist and apologise.
Mr Livingstone last week likened a Jewish reporter on the Evening Standard to a concentration camp guard.
But, Mr Livingstone has refused to apologise claiming that Associated Newspapers, which owns the Evening Standard and the Daily Mail, has conducted a 24-year vendetta against him.
In a statement to the London Assembly, the Mayor said: “If I could in anything I say relieve any pain anyone feels I would not hesitate to do it but it would require me to be a liar.
“I could apologise but why should I say words I do not believe in my heart? Therefore I cannot. If that is something people find they cannot accept I am sorry but this is how I feel after nearly a quarter of a century of their behaviour and tactics. I cannot say to you words I do not believe in my heart.
“If I could say something to lessen the pain of what I said I would. In the comments I made it simply indicated the level of loathing and disgust for the racism they have perpetuated and the bigotry they have encouraged for over 100 years.”
Leader of the London Assembly Conservatives, Bob Neill, has now written to Mr Blair in his capacity as leader of the Labour Party urging him to take disciplinary action against Mr Livingstone.
Mr Neill said: “The Mayor has been given numerous opportunities to apologise for his deeply offensive remarks. In resolutely refusing to do so he has ignored the wishes of most Londoners, many of his Labour colleagues and the London Assembly. I think it is now time for the Prime Minister, as leader of the Labour Party, to insist Mr Livingstone apologises. If the Mayor refuses, Mr Blair should take disciplinary action within the Party.”
He added that this dispute comes in “a vital week for London’s 2012 bid and the Mayor’s refusal to atone for his comments could do significant damage.”
Mr Neill said the GLA motion did not ask Mr Livingstone to “withdraw his distaste for Associated Newspapers but it did ask him to recognise that the phrases he used were wholly inappropriate and to apologise for them.”
He continued: “As you know the GLA Act does not provide the Assembly with the ability to censure the Mayor formally or to penalise him in the same way that the Speaker of the House of Commons or indeed the House itself can do to Members of Parliament. Our power to act is limited. In passing this unanimous motion we have done all we can as an Assembly to urge him to apologise.
“Given that Mr Livingstone is now back inside the Labour Party, I ask you, as party leader, to use all your influence to insist he apologises; and, if he refuses, to consider disciplinary procedures within the party.”
Mr Livingstone could also face action from the Committee on Standards in Public Life after the Board of Deputies of British Jews decided to lodge an official complaint.
It argued that Mr Livingstone’s comments “were entirely unwarranted and unjustified in the circumstances and had no bearing on or relevance to the exchange with Mr Finegold” and “demonstrated a gross insensitivity to and a wilful disregard for the feelings of appreciable numbers of those he is supposed to represent as holder of the office of Mayor of London, including but not limited to Jews and gays and lesbians in London.”
They contend that in doing so Mr Livingstone has breached the seven principles of public life set out by the committee and has “failed to act objectively, with integrity and in the public interest by allowing his personal antipathy to the Evening Standard newspaper to influence his actions and statements.”
