Irving sparks new controversy over 'n***** brown' Rolls-Royce

Mr Irving made the remarks at a press conference on his return to the UK, after serving a third of a three-year jail sentence for Holocaust denial.

The writer endorsed drunken comments by Hollywood actor Mel Gibson to the effect that Jews had been behind all modern wars.

He also made reference to his success as an author during the 1970s by talking about his cash purchase of a "n***** brown" Rolls-Royce.

Labour peer Lord Foulkes, a member of the Policy Council of Labour Friends of Israel, said the police should keep a close watch on Mr Irving's comments to see whether they breached anti-racism laws.

He said: "Mr Irving should be aware that since he was last in the United Kingdom, the laws have been strengthened to deal with people who hold racist views and who stir up antagonism on the basis of either race or religion.

"That is why the authorities, particularly the police, need to keep a very close and careful watch on him.

"He should not be permitted to make such offensive and potentially illegal comments on the basis of his desire for self-publicity or to promote his book sales. He certainly needs very close monitoring."

Eric Moonman, President of the Zionist Federation and a former Labour MP, said: "He served only 13 months of his three-year sentence. But if he had served 10 years I don't think that would have altered his thinking.

"His latest comments suggest that he is a racist, and I think that we are going to hear more from David Irving about his beliefs in relation to Jews and coloured people. As a prominent Jewish person, I am troubled by this."

Louise Ellman, Labour MP for Liverpool, Riverside, and a key member of the Labour Friends of Israel, said: "These remarks about a Rolls-Royce in particular suggest to me that he is being deliberately offensive and trying to challenge people.

"There will be an impression that he is trying to incite hatred. He seems to feel that the reduction of his prison sentence exonerates him. It does not."

Lord Janner, president of the Holocaust Educational Trust, said Mr Irving's release was "unwarranted", his reputation was "in tatters" and his comments should be ignored.

"He was branded a racist by the judge in a British libel case and it is sad that his unwarranted release has attracted so much attention. His latest comments were totally to be expected and should be totally ignored," he said.

At the London press conference Mr Irving, 68, vowed to fight back against what he described as a "worldwide attempt" to silence him, after he was released from prison.

He said the fact that he was known as a Holocaust denier made his "blood boil" and that he was not anti-Semitic.

He said: "I am not a Holocaust denier. Nobody in their right mind can deny that the Nazis killed millions of Jews."

But he claims there is no evidence Hitler knew about the Holocaust, that fewer Jews died at Auschwitz than is commonly believed, and that the "real killing centres" were elsewhere.

"There has been a worldwide attempt to silence me," Mr Irving said. "It hasn't succeeded."

He went on: "I am now going to fight back. I am calling for an international boycott of German and Austrian historians until they put pressure on their governments to end the Stalinist legislation that puts historians in prison for expressing the wrong opinions about history - politically incorrect opinions.

"You can't have a genuine consensus about histories about a subject like the Holocaust... if the proponents of one argument are given the knighthoods and the money and their opponents are locked up in prison."

Mr Irving claimed he had "done the legwork" on researching the Holocaust that other historians had not, although he admitted he had been mistaken about opinions on the subject he had expressed in the past.

He insisted: "My books will be the ones that survive into the next century."

He said the sales of his book on Rommel enabled him to walk into a car showroom with a brown paper bag stuffed with cash to buy a "nigger brown" Rolls-Royce.

Asked if he was anti-Semitic, he said: "No, I like to think I am not." But he said: "In many respects Mel Gibson was right."

Asked if he was agreeing with the actor's drunken comments, he said Gibson had "touched a raw nerve" and characterised them as "in vino veritas".

Mr Irving said: "I am sure the Jews don't need me as a friend but it's in their interests that I'm saying these things.

"They should ask themselves the question, 'why have they been so hated for three thousand years that there has been pogrom after pogrom in country after country?', and it's the one question they seem to be very shy of. "It is intended entirely in their own interests."