A radio presenter sacked after calling a Redbridge councillor a "Nazi" is to launch a High Court action over his right to free speech.

Jon Gaunt, who made the comments on his Talksport radio show in November 2008, is seeking to challenge an Ofcom decision upholding complaints against him under the Broadcasting Code.

The censure followed a live interview with Conservative councillor Michael Stark about the council's decision to ban smokers from becoming foster parents.

Mr Stark defended the decision on the grounds that the welfare of young children should be put ahead of the needs of foster families.

But Gaunt, who was in care as a child, accused his interviewee of being a "Nazi" and an "ignorant pig" and also a "health Nazi", arguing that children in care would be deprived of the chance of finding a foster home under the new policy.

At the end of the show, Gaunt made an on-air apology to his guest and was suspended pending an investigation. Talksport later announced that it had terminated his contract.

Gaunt is now seeking a judicial review claiming his fundamental right to free speech and to criticise a professional politician has been infringed by Ofcom's findings.

His lawyers describe the case as "ground breaking", saying it will be the "first time that a known media personality has brought a direct legal challenge against Ofcom for stifling his rights to free speech during a live broadcast".

In a statement, Gaunt said: "The right of every British citizen to speak his or her mind, free of the fear of sanction from faceless government-appointed bureaucrats is a right that we must all protect and preserve.

"It cannot be right that in this century, after generations of Britons gave their lives to preserve free speech, that a radio commentator is still not able to express his views about a professional politician without those words being subject to the approval and vetting of an unelected group of men and women in the Ofcom building."