BRITAIN: The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, yesterday called on the Mayor of London, Mr Ken Livingstone, to apologise for making offensive remarks to a Jewish journalist.
During a live television appearance, Mr Blair was asked if he thought Mr Livingstone should apologise for accusing Evening Standard journalist Oliver Finegold of behaving like a Nazi concentration camp guard.
The Prime Minister replied: "A lot of us in politics get angry with journalists from time to time but in the circumstances - and to the journalist because he was a Jewish journalist - yes he should apologise. Let's just apologise and move on - that's the sensible thing."
The row broke out after Mr Finegold approached Mr Livingstone outside a party at City Hall which marked the 20-year anniversary of former culture secretary Mr Chris Smith coming out as Britain's first openly gay MP.
Referring to the decision of the Daily Mail - the Evening Standard's sister paper - to support Oswald Mosley's British Union of Fascists in the 1930s, the mayor asked Mr Finegold if he was a "German war criminal".
When the journalist replied he was Jewish, he said: "You're just like a concentration camp guard. You're just doing it because you're paid to, aren't you?"
An official complaint was made to the Standards Board of England, the local government watchdog, by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, demanding an official investigation.
The board has the power to suspend or ban Mr Livingstone from holding public office.
The Prime Minister later said he did not think the mayor should resign if he refused to apologise.
"I am quite sure he did not mean anything remotely anti-Jewish or anti-Semitic about it at all but it's a remark that can cause offence to people and it's best, if that happens, just to accept that, apologise and move on.
"It's difficult sometimes in politics but occasionally you have got to know when to say sorry and that's the only way of dealing with it."
Mr Livingstone conceded yesterday that the remark was "offensive" but insisted it was not racist and refused to say sorry. He said yesterday that even an intervention from Mr Blair would not force him to back down.
Mr Livingstone said: "[ When] I went back to the Labour Party he made it absolutely clear it was my job to do my job.
"He has no intention of making me Foreign Secretary and we have our respective roles. He is not there to manage me.
"He is not answerable to my mistakes or successes. We are judged separately and independently."
The Prime Minister was instrumental in bringing Mr Livingstone back into the Labour Party last year - overriding the fierce objections of senior colleagues.
The Tory leader, Mr Michael Howard, said he thought it was important for politicians to talk with "civility and courtesy about the issues we all face".
He went on: "I think it is a matter of great sadness that we are not seeing that from the Labour Party."
Lord Greville Janner, chair of the Holocaust Educational Trust, agreed with Mr Blair.
"The Prime Minister is absolutely right in telling Ken Livingstone to apologise," he said. "If he doesn't apologise, then this is going to go on and on, which won't do the mayor any good.
In a statement issued after Mr Blair's comments, the mayor's office said he was not making further comment at the moment because he was dealing with the International Olympic Committee visit.