Ken Livingstone to face hearing

London Mayor Ken Livingstone will face a disciplinary hearing for comparing a Jewish journalist to a

Nazi concentration camp guard, England's local government watchdog said Tuesday.

The Standards Board for England said an investigation into charges that Livingstone "failed to treat others with respect and brought his authority into disrepute" had concluded that a disciplinary hearing should take up the matter.

The Adjudication Panel for England, which will conduct the hearing, could bar Livingstone from office for up to five years, censure him, order him to apologize or force him to undergo training, said a spokesman for the Standards Board.

Livingstone said the investigation had cleared him of the more serious charge of failing to comply with the Greater London Authority's code of conduct. The Standards Board spokesman, who declined to be identified in keeping with board policy, said he did not have the confidential report and did not know whether it had partially cleared Livingstone.

"The Standards Board has rejected the allegation that I failed to comply with the GLA's code of conduct in relation to this exchange," Livingstone said in a brief statement.

"The tribunal will now consider the issue of whether I treated a journalist with respect." The panel generally holds hearings 15 weeks after receiving reports of alleged misconduct, but announced no

specific date for Livingstone's hearing.

The outspoken mayor has refused to say he was sorry for the comment, which drew calls for contrition from Holocaust survivors, the government's race-relations watchdog and even Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The mayor said he had not meant to offend the Jewish community when he asked Evening Standard reporter Oliver Finegold whether he had been a "German war criminal."

"Just like a concentration camp guard"

Finegold, who had approached the mayor for comment after a reception for the gay and lesbian community in February, 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?"

He referred to Finegold's employer as "a load of scumbags and reactionary bigots." The mayor said shortly after making the remarks that he had been deeply affected by the reaction of Jewish groups

and others.

"I have nothing to apologize for," he said at the time. "My words were not intended to cause such offense." He defended his attack on Finegold, his employer the Evening Standard and its sister paper, The Daily Mail.

Livingstone, a staunch left-winger once nicknamed "Red Ken" by the tabloid press, has long had a testy

relationship with sections of the British media - especially with Associated Newspapers, parent company of the Mail and the Standard.

The Board of Deputies said in a statement said: "We regret that this sorry episode has reached this stage but in the face of the Mayor’s intransigence we felt that the complaint had to be made. The reported finding against Mr Livingstone fully vindicates the concern and upset felt at the time by the very many people who found the Mayor’s comments to be grossly insulting. His subsequent failure to apologise has compounded this insult to all victims of the Holocaust."

"It cannot be right that such statements can be made by an elected official with impunity."

Ynetnews contributed to this report