04/10/2006

Ken Livingstone appeals suspension

London Mayor Ken Livingstone is appealing against his suspension from the post over remarks made to a Jewish reporter.

Mr Livingstone was given a four-week suspension by the Standards Board for England in February because of the affair.

The Mayor had compared Evening Standard newspaper reporter Oliver Finegold - a Jew - to a Nazi concentration camp guard.

The three-man panel had found Mr Livingstone guilty of being "unnecessarily insensitive and offensive" and was in breach of the Greater London Authority code of conduct.

However, his lawyer, James Maurici, told the High Court on Wednesday that the ruling was "wholly untenable".

The suspension order remains frozen, pending the outcome of the legal challenge.

(KMcA/SP)

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