Livingstone stands firm despite apology demands

London Mayor Ken Livingstone today again refused to apologise for comparing a Jewish reporter to a Nazi concentration camp guard, insisting he had nothing to say sorry for.

“What I said to this reporter was irrelevant whether he was black, gay or Jewish, I said it because he was a reporter - that was the defining issue,” he told a packed City Hall press conference in central London.

He told the capital’s Jewish community he did not mean to offend them.

But he launched a fresh attack on the reporter, his newspaper the Evening Standard and its sister paper the Daily Mail.

The Mayor said he had been deeply affected by the concern of Jewish people, including Holocaust survivors, following his remarks to Oliver Finegold two weeks ago.

In fact the only time he said sorry was as he defiantly told reporters: “Sorry, the world isn’t all about you journalists.”

A fiery Mr Livingstone said he had been rude to journalists for 25 years and would continue to do so.

To the Jewish community he said: “My words were not intended to cause such offence“. But he said he would not take a lesson about anti-Semitism from the Daily Mail.

His statement failed to placate critics. Leading Jewish UK parliamentarian Greville Janner said it was “very disgracefully wrong of him” not to have apologised.

Lord Janner, a former war crimes investigator, told Sky News the mayor should resign.

Since the outburst two weeks ago UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has called on Mr Livingstone to apologise.