MPs crank up pressure on Ken

Labour MPs will increase pressure for an apology from Ken Livingstone next week during private talks with election chief Alan Milburn.

They will warn that the Mayor's "Nazi" jibe and his refusal to say sorry is damaging Labour, especially in London, and leaving a false impression that the party is insensitive to the Jewish community.

The MPs plan to raise their concerns at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, where Mr Milburn is due to give a presentation on the election campaign.

Their hope is that Mr Milburn will persuade Mr Livingstone to make an apology for comparing a Jewish journalist on the Evening Standard to a "concentration camp guard".

Tony Blair has already called for an apology, as have Jewish community leaders and all five parties on the London Assembly. Yesterday the Commission for Racial Equality formally referred his remarks to the Standards Board for England.

One backbencher said the controversy, coming so soon after the row over a poster depicting Michael Howard as a "Fagin" figure, had created a damaging impression.

"There is growing concern among the Jewish community about perceived anti-Semitism," he said. "I do not believe there is any real anti-Semitism involved but Ken's is the latest in a series of gaffes."

The Prime Minister was interviewed about the affair in today's Jewish Chronicle, underlining Labour's fears of the damage being caused. He said Mr Livingstone should have said sorry as soon as reporter Oliver Finegold told him he was Jewish.

Mr Livingstone is being backed by some Left-wing Labour MPs, including his former GLC deputy John McDonnell and Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP Diane Abbott. Ms Abbott last night attacked the Evening Standard on BBC TV's Question Time programme - but got her facts wrong. "It was a Standard journalist who has been harassing him for months, who was standing outside a private function with a tape recorder to set Ken up," she said.

In fact, the transcript shows Mr Livingstone launched an unprovoked attack and that Finegold was polite throughout.

It happened, not at a private party but at a civic dinner funded by the taxpayer at City Hall in honour of Labour MP Chris Smith. Ms Abbott admitted that Mr Livingstone's comments were "tasteless" but not "racist" or "anti-Semitic". The party was to celebrate the 20th anniversary of former Culture Secretary Mr Smith's "coming out" as the first openly gay MP.

Mr Smith was happy to speak to Finegold. A few days earlier he had presented an award at the Evening Standard British Film Awards and the newspaper had published a leading article praising his "courage" in revealing he was HIV positive.