February 24, 2006
London's mayor Ken Livingstone was suspended from holding office for a month on Friday after comparing a Jewish reporter to a concentration camp guard. The unprecedented decision by a three-person panel, which hears complaints against local authorities, struck "at the heart of democracy", Livingstone said in a statement, adding: "Three members of a body that no one has ever elected should not be allowed to overturn the votes of millions of Londoners… Elected politicians should only be able to be removed by the voters or for breaking the law." He added he was discussing with lawyers whether to appeal. The suspension came as a surprise: the Labour politician and mayor of the British capital, who is one of the country's most popular politicians, could have faced up to a five year ban on holding public office, but local media were expecting not more than a public rebuke. Livingstone's deputy Nicky Gavron said she would run the city in his absence, and city services would not be interrupted.
Livingstone sparked the affair when reporter Oliver Finegold cornered him outside a party for a gay politician in February 2005. When the reporter identified himself as working for the "Evening Standard", a paper loathed by the mayor, Livingstone asked: "What did you do? Were you a German war criminal?" Finegold said he was Jewish and found the remarks offensive. Livingstone replied that by pestering him the reporter was acting "like a concentration camp guard -- you are just doing it because you are paid to."
