An angry Mr Frank Dobson branded Mr Ken Livingstone "a liar" yesterday, after the former GLC leader confirmed he will run as an independent candidate for mayor of London.
In a bitter attack which signalled a deeply personal fight ahead, Labour's official candidate rounded on Mr Livingstone for breaking his promise not to leave the party, made repeatedly during the party's selection campaign.
Having given assurances of loyalty to the party, Mr Dobson said, "now he's turned out to be a liar", adding: "Ken, you can run but you cannot hide your politics from Londoners. I will expose your policies and the people that surround you every day, every week of this campaign, and I will do so because you are dangerous for London."
Announcing his decision in the London Evening Standard, Mr Livingstone acknowledged that he had broken his word, saying: "I offer no weasel words of equivocation and I apologise."
However, he added: "What I do not intend to do is take any lectures from those who have set new standards in ballot-rigging."
Renewing his attack on Labour's electoral college "fix", Mr Livingstone quoted an opinion poll showing just 15 per cent of London voters thought the outcome fair, warning: "No political party should ever assume London voters are so stupid that they would not notice blatant ballot-rigging. As many Londoners have put it to me, `If we let them get away with this they'll think they can get away with anything'."
Mr Livingstone claimed 74,000 votes from all individual party members, trade unionists and MPs who had voted, to 24,000 for Mr Dobson, adding that Mr Dobson's margin of victory resulted from one Co-op branch which cast 8 per cent of the total vote without balloting its members.
He said he had spent the past fortnight trying to persuade the party and the government of two principles without which "devolution and real self-government will be meaningless".
First, that Londoners should not have imposed upon them a candidate they did not want. Second, that London voters overwhelmingly rejected the break-up and partial privatisation of the Underground.
Having failed to persuade the leadership to "listen to Londoners", Mr Livingstone said, he felt "forced to choose between the party I love and upholding the democratic rights of Londoners". And he had concluded that "defence of the principle of London's right to govern itself" demanded he run as an independent in the election on May 4th.
Mr Livingstone has surged ahead to take a 55-point lead over Mr Dobson, according to a Guardian/ICM opinion poll published today. The poll, carried out after Mr Livingstone ended months of speculation that he would break from the party, puts him on 68 - 55 per cent ahead of Mr Dobson's 13 per cent. The Conservative candidate, Mr Steven Norris, is on 11 per cent while the Liberal Democrat, Ms Susan Kramer, has 6 per cent.
According to the survey of 1,003 adults across London, Mr Livingstone would receive the support of 75 per of Labour voters, 70 per cent of Liberal Democrat supporters and 48 per cent of Conservative voters.
--(PA)