Jeremy Corbyn denied there was a crisis in Labour after he was forced to suspend Ken Livingstone amid accusations he was a 'Nazi apologist'.

The Labour leader also insisted that critics were nervous at the strength of his party as he said that he was “sad” that he had had to move against his long-time friend and ally.

Earlier the former Labour mayor triggered a storm when he invoked the memory of Adolf Hitler to defend a Labour MP accused of anti-Semitism.

Bradford MP Naz Shah had the Labour whip withdrawn over a Facebook post she shared calling for Israel to be “relocated” in the United States.

But Mr Livingstone told BBC London said that Ms Shah’s actions "were over the top but she’s not anti-Semitic".

He went on: "Let’s remember when Hitler won his election in 1932, his policy then was that Jews should be moved to Israel. He was supporting Zionism – this before he went mad and ended up killing six million Jews. The simple fact in all of this is that Naz made these comments at a time when there was another brutal Israeli attack on the Palestinians."

In response a raft of senior Labour MPs, and Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale, called for Mr Livingstone to be suspended.

One Labour backbencher John Mann, the chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on anti-Semitism, ran into Mr Livingstone on the way to another interview, this time with the BBC’s Daily Politics programme.

In a furious face-to-face confrontation, captured by a number of television cameras, he shouted at Mr Livingstone that he was a “Nazi apologist”.

Less than two hours later Labour announced that Mr Livingstone had been suspended pending an investigation "for bringing the Party into disrepute".

But there was anger among Labour MPs as it was announced in the same statement that Mr Mann was being hauled in front of the chief whip over his behaviour.

Labour MP Louise Ellmann, who was chairwoman of the Jewish Labour Movement until earlier this year, welcomed Mr Livingstone's suspension, but said it was "difficult to understand" why Mr Mann should face disciplinary action for confronting him.

The row follows weeks of claims that Labour is failing to crack down on anti-Semitism within the party.

Mr Corbyn said that criticism that Labour was suffering a crisis over the issue came "from those who are nervous of the strength of the party at a local level”.

But David Cameron said it was not "totally apparent (Labour) have got a problem, and they have got to deal with it".

In Eastwood, the constituency with Scotland’s biggest Jewish population, Labour's Ken Macintosh visited charity Jewish Care Scotland and condemned what he said had been a "shameful day" for his party.

A number of Jewish groups called for Mr Livingstone's immediate expulsion from Labour, while a number of donors suggested they could no longer support the party.

Gideon Falter, chairman of the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism, said: "He is a hardened politician who has spent his political career accommodating anti-Semitic extremists and making anti-Semitic gaffes.

"Jeremy Corbyn should understand that zero tolerance for racism is all or nothing, and it is time for Ken Livingstone to be banished or for Corbyn to stop pretending to oppose racism."

Jonathan Arkush, president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said: "Ken Livingstone's comments were abhorrent and beyond disgraceful.

"He denies anti-Semitism in Labour when the evidence is there for all to see. He lacks any sense of reality and decency. He must now be expelled from the Labour Party."

London mayor Boris Johnson told LBC radio: "There is plainly some sort of virus of anti-Semitism within the Labour Party that needs to be addressed."