London mayor Ken Livingstone is asking the High Court to postpone his suspension while it hears his appeal.

Mr Livingstone has been banned from his post for four weeks, starting Wednesday, over comparing a Jewish reporter to a Nazi concentration camp guard.

Last week a three-man adjudication panel found the mayor brought his office into disrepute when he insulted the Evening Standard's Oliver Finegold in February last year.

Today Mr Livingstone called for the suspension to be "stayed" while he appeals against the ruling.

"I have instructed my legal representatives to lodge an appeal today," he said in a statement.

"We will be asking for the suspension to be 'stayed' - in effect lifted - until an appeal on both whether there was a breach of the code of conduct, and also whether the sanction was appropriate, has been heard."

Hearing sped up?

If the application fails, deputy mayor Nicky Gavron will take over from Mr Livingstone in two days time.

Usually a legal challenge would take months to come before a court. Yet Mr Livingstone's team are expected to argue that it would be in the public interest for the case to be moved forward.

On Friday David Laverick, chairman of the Adjudication Panel for England, said he was "concerned" that the mayor has failed to realise the seriousness of his "unnecessarily offensive" outburst.

But the mayor hit back, saying the ruling "strikes at the heart of democracy".

In a statement, Mr Livingstone said: "Elected politicians should only be able to be removed by the voters or for breaking the law.

"Three members of a body that no one has ever elected should not be allowed to overturn the votes of millions of Londoners."

Soaring costs

Today's appeal will see the mayor's legal costs soar. He has already spent about £80,000 out of his own pocket on the hearing.

The incident occurred when as the mayor was leaving a City Hall party for Chris Smith, which celebrated 20 years since he came out as Britain's first openly gay MP.

When Mr Finegold repeatedly asked Mr Livingstone how the night went, the mayor quipped: "Were you a German war criminal?"

After hearing Mr Finegold was Jewish, the mayor likened him to a concentration camp guard: "You are doing it because you are paid to, aren't you?"

Despite pressure from the Jewish community, Mr Livingstone never apologised for the remarks.

The adjudication panel, sitting in central London, chose the second most severe sanction available to them under the Greater London Authority's code of conduct.

It found the maximum penalty, disqualification, would not be appropriate. It could also have censured the mayor or sent him for training.