Ken Livingstone has refused to apologise for his comments on Hitler and Zionism.

Giving evidence at a Home Affairs Select Committee hearing on antisemitism this afternoon, he ignored repeated offers from committee members to retract the controversial comments he made during a radio interview in April. He had claimed that Hitler supported Zionism.

Confronted with an accusation of antisemitism, the former London Mayor said: “I have had this accusation thrown at me many times. It is only ever thrown at me when I am critical of the Israel government.”

He said he regretted making the remark “because it allowed all the anti-Jeremy [Corbyn] people in the party to whip it up into a bigger issue.

“I regret using it because it became this hysterical issue.”

Ken Livingstone looks on as Jonathan Arkush gives evidence

Referring to critics like Labour MP John Mann, who had publically confronted him over the issue, he added: “They smeared me to undermine the leader of the Labour Party. They should be suspended.”

Mr Livingstone went on to say that he could have “sued” Mr Mann, chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group Against Antisemitism, for calling him a “Nazi apologist”.

He claimed that when he was London Mayor, there were few incidents of antisemitism, repeating his claim that the issue of Jew-hate in the Labour Party had surfaced about in a bid to undermine Jeremy Corbyn.

“If you’re a bigot, the Labour Party is not going to be your natural place in politics,” he said.

Mr Livingstone, who had earlier listened to evidence SNP’s leader in Westminster Angus Robertson and Jonathan Arkush, president of the Board of Deputies, both of whom said his statements were antisemitic, claimed that he had “hundreds” of supporters.

He said people had stopped him in street, telling him: “‘We know what you said is true. Don’t give in’.”

Recalling a visit to Israel, he said he would propose a “two-state solution” under “one economy”.

During the course of the hearing, committee members, including Chuka Umunna, the Labour MP for Streatham, became visibly frustrated with Mr Livingstone’s comments.

He told the former London Mayor: "All you're going to be remembered for is as a pin-up for prejudice. It's an embarrassment."

David Winnick, the Labour MP for Walsall North, asked why he was playing the “martyr”.

Mr Livingstone – whose suspension for alleged antisemitism sparked Labour’s inquiry into Jew-hate – was told that by Nusrat Ghani, the Tory MP for Wealden, that he had “obsession” with the Nazi party.

Earlier, Mr Arkush told that committee, chaired by Labour MP Keith Vaz, that antisemitism was on the rise in the UK.

He pointed out that communal bodies and synagogues were guarded by security personnel, adding that some Jewish schools “look like fortresses”.

Antisemitism in UK could one day be as bad as that in France, he believed, with schools and synagogues guarded by soldiers.

Mr Arkush told the committee that the comment by former London mayor Ken Livingstone that Hitler backed Zionism was “antisemitic” and that he had been “horrified” when he heard it.

He said: “As a British citizen who lives and works in the country as I have done my whole life, I could not believe I was hearing someone in political life saying Hitler was a Zionist”.

Comments like that made him personally feel “insecure”, he added.

Mr Livingstone, who was suspended from the Labour Party in April as a result of his remark, was present in the room as Mr Arkush spoke, ahead of his own appearance before committee this afternoon.

Mr Arkush said he accepted that criticism of Israel was not anti-Semitic but was concerned when it was made by people “averting their eyes” from other international issues.

“If you were only focused on one place to the exclusion of other, I do wonder,” he said.

Giving evidence, Angus Robertson, the leader of the Scottish National Party at Westminster, defended his party's focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in debates in the Scottish Parliament, pointing to the “treatment of the Palestinians and the Palestinians’ right to self-determination”.

Noting his party’s commitment to a two-state solution, he said some parliamentarians feel “passionately about” key issues, including the conflict.

However, he admitted that the used of words like “Zionists and Zionism" were used by some as a code for "Jews".

"We should be very careful about how that kind of language is used,” he shared.

He said he shared Mr Arkush’s concern at the comments made by Mr Livingstone.

Mr Robertson, who said he is half-German, told the committee that he condemned the comments, adding “there is no excuse for it”.

He said that if Mr Livingstone was a member of the SNP, “I would have sought his dismissal”.

Mr Robertson, who revealed that he would travel to Israel this year, said there was a distinction between criticising the Israeli government and antisemitism.

The MP, who has met with a number of communal bodies in recent weeks, including the Jewish Leadership Council, said: “I am a strong critic of the government of Israel.

“I am very concerned about the treatment of Palestinians and would wish there to be a two-state solution.

“It’s a very difficult change to bring about. That is what we should be pursuing.”

However, he recognised that in some cases, antisemitism came out in anti-Israel activism, where people “start using language and imagery which we know from history has been used before, to cast that back to all Jews in Israel.”

He said that tropes like: “Jewish ownership of press or the financial system to influence public opinion - that is antisemitism”.