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London Mayor Ken Livingstone (AP)
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| By Associated Press February 18, 2005 |
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Comments made by London Mayor Ken Livingstone, comparing a Jewish journalist to a Nazi concentration camp guard, will be investigated to see if they breached race relations laws, Britain's Commission for Racial Equality said Thursday.
The watchdog body said it was asking the Standards Board for England to rule on whether Livingstone's comments breached the country's race relations act.
The Board of Deputies of British Jews has already asked the standards board -- the local government watchdog -- to consider whether Livingstone's comments were in contravention of race laws.
The mayor has resisted calls for an apology -- including one from Prime Minster Tony Blair -- saying he didn't believe he had done anything wrong.
"You may think my remarks to that reporter -- and many over the years -- are offensive," Livingstone said Tuesday. "That is purely a matter of judgment. If you think they are racist, I think you are wrong."
Livingstone made the comments last week when he was approached by a reporter for the Evening Standard newspaper at a reception for the gay and lesbian community.
The mayor, an outspoken left-winger nicknamed "Red Ken," dislikes the paper and its conservative sister paper, the Daily Mail.
The Daily Mail had a pro-Nazi editorial line in the 1930s, and Livingstone asked journalist Oliver Finegold if he had been a "German war criminal." Finegold replied that he was Jewish. Livingstone told the reporter he was "just like a concentration camp guard. You're just doing it because you're paid to, aren't you?"
The standards board has the power to suspend or bar Livingstone from office if he is found to have brought his office into disrepute.
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