Mr Ken Livingstone was formally installed as Mayor of London yesterday, pledging that his "inclusive" administration would "set a new standard in open government" in Britain. Rejecting suggestions that he would routinely find himself in confrontation with the Blair government, the new Mayor again confirmed he hoped to rejoin Labour and be the party's official candidate in the next mayoral election, in 2004.
However, Mr Livingstone used his inaugural speech to add to the pressure on Mr Blair to commit to joining the euro, arguing that British membership of the single currency was essential to maintain London as the world's most internationalised city.
As ministers played down the significance of a leaked official memo warning of "meltdown" in Britain's manufacturing heartlands unless the cabinet declared membership of the euro inevitable, Mr Livingstone said it was essential if London was to compete with Paris and Berlin and remain "the financial centre of Europe".
At a news conference following his speech Mr Livingstone stressed that the British capital's ability to take advantage of the trends to globalisation and new technology impinged on the prosperity of the United Kingdom as a whole.
"Creating a squalid London with a broken-down transport system, deep pools of poverty, and inadequate policing will not aid the rest of the UK's regions, but weaken the attractiveness of the whole economy of the country," he said.
Mr Livingstone has acknowledged that transport will be "the real test" of his mayoralty. "If I get it wrong, I will be a one-term mayor." And despite his opposition to government policy for a public/private partnership to fund improvements to the Underground, he said he had found "broad agreement with ministers" on the need for largescale investment in London's transport system.
Mr Livingstone also distanced himself again from the "anarchist yobs" behind the May Day riots, and endorsed Mr Blair's "zero tolerance" approach to street crime and violence.