KEN LIVINGSTONE was accused last night of having “lost the plot” after an angry confrontation with a Jewish journalist who, he said, was behaving “just like a concentration camp guard”.

The Mayor clashed with Oliver Finegold, a reporter from the London Evening Standard, on Wednesday night at a party marking the 20th anniversary of Chris Smith becoming the first openly gay MP.

His “concentration camp” remark came after being told that the reporter was Jewish, it was claimed.

It is also alleged that he told the reporter to “work for a paper that doesn’t have a record of supporting Fascism” — a reference to the pro-Hitler stance in the 1930s of the Standard’s stablemate, the Daily Mail.

The episode has raised fresh doubts about Mr Livingstone’s judgment ahead of the general election, in which Labour had hoped he would play a key role in winning back support among disillusioned voters.

A spokesman for Mr Livingstone accused the newspaper of “harassment of a predominantly lesbian and gay event”. He said: “In these circumstances it is hardly surprising that the discussion between the journalist and the Mayor escalated.”

But Brian Coleman, the London Assembly chairman and a Conservative member, said: “The Mayor has lost the plot. He fails to understand that he has a position of civic leadership.”

The Board of Deputies of British Jews said: “We are appalled by this latest outburst by a man whose insensitivity seems to know no bounds.”

The confrontation came to light as new figures showed that abusive or violent attacks on Jews in Britain reached record levels last year. There were 532 anti-Semitic incidents in 2004, according to the Community Security Trust (CST), against 375 in 2003.

Last year there were 83 physical attacks on Jews, up 54 per cent on 2003, four of which were life-threatening.

The other incidents were acts of abusive behaviour, name-calling in the street, sending hate mail or the desecration of property such as the daubing of swastikas on synagogues. There was also a record number of anti-Semitic threats. A total of 100 incidents were recorded in March alone, the second-highest monthly total since the CST began counting in 1984. Michael Whine, the CST’s director of communications, said: “This increase is extremely alarming. The transfer of tensions in the Middle East to the streets of Britain has resulted in an unprecedented level of anti- Semitic incidents.”

Peter Hain, Leader of the House of Commons, described the rise in anti-Semitism as “totally unacceptable”. He told MPs in the Commons that there were regular meetings between the Home Secretary and the President of the Board of Deputies and close collaboration between the police and the Jewish community.

Dr Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi, said: “The single most important thing is for our community to enlist others to join in the protest against the attacks. Jews must not be left to fight anti-Semitism alone.”

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