Olive branch for “Red Ken”
Final discussions are expected this weekend on plans to entice Mayor of London Ken Livingstone back into Labour’s party fold.
Mr Livingstone currently has the mayoralty as an independent but Labour wants firebrand ‘Red Ken’ onboard ahead of the next general election.
Party organisers hope to attract London’s floating electorate to vote for Labour at the next election and view having a Labour mayor as a step along that path. Labour’s candidate for mayor heavily lags behind Mr Livingstone in the popularity stakes.
The former Brent East MP was banished from the party for five years in 2000 after running against Frank Dobson.
It is assumed the party’s National Executive Committee will vote next Wednesday to end Mr Livingstone’s five-year expulsion, with a formal approach to be made at a meeting in December.
Labour’s candidate for next year’s mayoral poll, Nicky Gavron, is expected to announce she will step aside if Mr Livingstone rejoins the party.
Home secretary David Blunkett said Mr Livingstone was now ‘very different from the man I dealt with 30 years ago.’
But Education Secretary Charles Clarke is opposed to handing the mayor an olive branch.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown is also rumoured to be against Mr Livingstone’s return, but may toe the party line if the NEC moves to back the maverick politician.
