A senior aide to Boris Johnson today apologised after calling Lib-Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes a "dick".
James Cleverly, a Tory member of the London Assembly, said Mr Hughes should "bugger off to Labour" if he was unable to accept the Tory and Liberal Democrat coalition Government.
His remarks came after Mr Hughes, MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark, said on the 100th day of the coalition that Lib-Dem backbenchers should have the ability to veto policies put forward by the Cabinet.
Mr Cleverly wrote on his blog: "We may be coalition partners but it doesn't stop me thinking that Simon Hughes is a dick. Hughes' latest bone-headed idea is for back-bench Lib-Dem MPs to have a veto on the coalition government's policies. Fool.
"If Hughes feels it impossible to work with the Conservatives and his own front bench Lib-Dem colleagues, why not just bugger off to Labour and let the serious politicians get on with it?"
His remarks spread quickly on Twitter and Mr Cleverly, the Tory deputy leader at City Hall, returned home last night to admit: "Seems my Simon Hughes post caused quite a stir, ooops!"
This morning he admitted that name-calling was "a bit childish" and his use of the term "dick" had overshadowed the point he was trying to make about the Lib-Dems. He added: "I suspect that after a number of decades in frontline politics Simon Hughes has developed a thick enough skin to deal with my comments, but if I have genuinely caused offence, I apologise.
"Simon Hughes' recent pronouncements seem to undermine the coalition and by extension demonstrate a degree of disloyalty to Nick Clegg."
Mr Cleverly, a major in the Territorial Army, earns £77,480 as an Assembly member and mayoral appointee to the Metropolitan Police Authority and the London Waste and Recycling Board.
Mr Hughes could not be reached for comment. But Caroline Pidgeon, leader of the Lib-Dem group at City Hall, said: "These juvenile and abusive insults about a well-respected politician, simply because James disagrees with him, are demeaning. They reflect far more on James himself."
