February 8, 2005: Ken Livingstone hosts a reception to mark the 20th anniversary of the Labour MP Chris Smith coming out as gay. Oliver Finegold, a Jewish reporter for the London Evening Standard, covers the event. Mr Livingstone tells the journalist that he was "just like a concentration camp guard" by following the Standard's orders.

February 11: The Evening Standard published a transcript of the interview under headline "Who said what when Ken clashed with reporter". The story was followed up by national newspapers the next day.

The Standard's relationship with the Mayor has been prickly since his time as the left-wing leader of the Greater London Council in the 1980s. But Mr Livingstone did work as restaurant critic for the Standard's ES supplement between 1996 and 2000.

February 13: Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, calls on the Mayor to apologise. Brian Coleman, Tory chair of the London Assembly, tables an emergency motion demaning an apology.

February 14: The Board of Deputies of British Jews calls on the Standards Board of England to investigate. The London Assembly, which scrutinises the Mayor's work, unanimously votes for him immediately to withdraw his remarks.

Mr Livingstone refuses to apologise: "If I could in anything I say relieve any pain anyone feels I would not hesitate to do it but it would require me to be a liar.''

February 15: Mr Livingstone admits that the comment was offensive. But he argues that he had been rude to reporters for nearly 25 years and would continue to be so.

February 16: Tony Blair calls on the Mayor to apologise. The Transport Minister, Tony McNulty, urges Mr Livingstone to apologise, describing the Nazi slur as "offensive, gratuitous and insensitive''."Ken is renowned for a degree of stubbornness that in politics has worked very well for him but sometimes you have got to get above the stubbornness,'' he says.

February 17: The Commission for Racial Equality refers the matter to the Standards Board.

February 21: The Standards Board launches a formal investigation into whether Mr Livingstone breached the code of conduct of the Greater London Authority.

December 13: Mr Livingstone is cleared of a misconduct by the Adjudication Panel for England after his lawyers argue that he was not acting in his official capacity when the exchange took place.

The three-member panel accept that Mr Livingstone was wearing an overcoat at the time and could not be deemed to be still working. His lawyers also argue that Mr Finegold told Mr Livingstone to "f*** off" in a five-second gap in the tape recording. This is denied by the paper. The panel reserves its judgment on a second charge of bringing his office into disrepute.

February 24, 2006: Mr Livingstone is suspended for four weeks as the panel rules that he brought the office into disrepute. Veronica Wadley, Editor of the Standard, said: "Mr Livingstone not only offended London’s Jewish community but then he did not show the stature expected of the mayor of London by apologising."

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