Surely that's more or less what he did say?

"...He added that over the past two weeks his "main concern" was for many Jewish Londoners, and regretted if his comments "may have been seen to downplay the horror and magnitude of the Holocaust".

"I wish to say to Londoners my words were not intended to cause such offence and that my view remains that the Holocaust against the Jews is the greatest racial crime of the 20th century...."

As for the suggestion that the newspaper group involved has any right to point accusingly at anyone for racism - once again I draw your attention to a vile racist cartoon which was published in the Daily Mail only last week.