LONDON (EJP)--- The Mayor of New York probably refused to meet London Mayor Ken Livingstone on a trip to the United States last winter because of Livingstone’s run-ins with the Jewish community, it has emerged.

An in-house memo prepared by the London Mayor’s office for Greater London Assembly (GLA) staff ahead of last January’s trip to the US - revealed for the first time last week - gives possible reasons as to why Michael Bloomberg had refused to meet Livingstone during the trip.

The note, read out at a meeting of senior GLA officers during an open session about the Mayor’s foreign trips, said the official reason for Bloomberg’s refusal was because he was "too busy". However, it went on to say that this was in "possible relation to bad reputation among Jewish press".

Livingstone triggered a row in 2005 after he told Oliver Finegold, a Jewish reporter for the Evening Standard, that he was "just like a concentration camp guard".

Livingstone is a staunch opponent of the Standard’s newspaper group Associated Newspapers, which he has long contended was sympathetic towards the Nazis during World War Two.

The London Mayor has long inferred that working for the group was akin to supporting an extremist organisation.

After making the comments, he was accused of gross insentivity and initially suspended from the Mayor’s office for four weeks, however that suspension was overturned after a High Court appeal.

Five year boycott

At the GLA session last Wednesday, officers revealed that Mr Bloomberg had agreed to no formal meetings with Mr Livingstone in five years.

After being questioned by Conservatives on the London Assembly about the memo, John Ross, the GLA’s director of economic and business policy, denied that any dispute with the Jewish community was the reason for the snub.

"The situation which existed with New York is that following 9/11 they closed down their international activity," he said.

"Mayor Bloomberg has been slowly re-increasing their international activity and in fact the Mayor of London is going to New York in May for a meeting on climate change."

However, Richard Barnes, deputy leader of the London Assembly’s Conservative group, said: "The documents produced by the Mayor’s own officers paint a truly worrying picture of the decision process.

"By not putting London before his own political beliefs, Livingstone has and will continue to damage London as a major world city."

And London Assembly Conservative Member Brian Coleman claimed it was too late for the Mayor to build bridges with the Jewish community.

“Bloomberg obviously has a lot of good sense. It is really something when the Mayor of New York won’t meet with the London Mayor," he said.

“It’s a little bit late to change Jewish people’s perceptions. We need a new mayor who has the confidence of all communities, not a select few. The Jewish community is well aware of Ken’s attitudes to Israel.”
“There is no doubt when we have a new Mayor that Bloomberg will meet him.”

Bad reputation

The document itself, allegedly from the London Mayor’s office, was headed ‘GLA history with NY’. It states: “On last meeting, Bloomberg was too busy to meet the Mayor. Possible relation to bad reputation amongst Jewish press.

In addition, bad relations between Jewish community and Richard Rogers (one of Britain’s leading architects, and an alleged supporter of the Palestinians) may have played a part."

A spokeswoman for the GLA said the memo was "not a document produced by any department of the GLA, it has not been approved by any body or responsible officer in the GLA, nor does it represent the policy of the GLA".

She added: "If this is the level of material that is being produced as ’evidence’ it is because those raising it cannot deal with the success of the Mayor. It shows they are desperate and simply scrabbling around for diversions."