What London's Labour MPs think of Livingstone...

Harry Phibbs takes a look at Ken Livingstone's relationship with Labour's London MPs.

Livingstone is the Labour candidate for Mayor of London. But what do London's Labour MPs think of him?
Greg Hands has written on CentreRight about the curious incident of the London Labour MPs who signed a letter to The Guardian in support of Livingstone. Despite Livingstone being an official Labour candidate only a quarter of London Labour MPs endorsed him. The rest were like the dogs that Sherlock Holmes recorded didn't bark in the night. Naturally, MPs are busy people. But why might some have been reluctant?

Kate Hoey, the Labour MP for Vauxhall, says of the misuse of London Development Agency Grants: "The Mayor has been consistently misleading the public over the status of this review. It was not independent and it did not clear Lee Jasper or the LDA. People need to wake up about what is happening."

Nick Raynsford, the Labour MP for Greenwich and Woolwich, has criticised the Government for giving Livingstone planning powers for building over 82 feet for giving developers a "perverse incentive" to propose eyesores given Livingstone enthusiasm for tall buildings. Raynsford has also been critical of Livingstone adopting his own foreign policy.

Frank Dobson, the Labour MP for Holborn and St Pancras who once stood against Livingstone, says of him: "The better you know him the less you trust him."

Stephen Pound, the Labour MP for Ealing North, said of Livingstone's response to allegations of involvement in a drunken brawl at a party resulting in Robin Hedges being pushed down into basement: "The old Ken would have stood up and said 'it's a fair cop', or else that he didn't do anything. For him to wriggle like this is un-Kenlike. He has got to be completely upfront and open. There are questions here."

Keith Hill, is the Labour MP for Streatham. When he was Minister of London and Livingstone was Mayor, Hill said of Livingstone: "He appears to be confused when it comes down to matters of detail."

Margaret Hodge, Labour MP for Barking, might not have been invited to sign. Livingstone vehemently denounced her proposal to giving British citizens prefernce in allocation of social housing to economic migrants.

Ann Keen, Labour MP for Brentford and Isleworth, doesn't even think Livingstone should be a Labour Party member.  In 2003 she said of the decision to reinstate him as a member: "Just because Nicky Gavron is doing badly in the polls does not mean we should be so cynical as to take Livingstone back."

Tony McNulty, Labour MP for Harrow East, has described Livingstone as "bloody stupid." He added that Livingstone behaviour on securing funding for Crossrail "was not terribly helpful."

Meg Hillier, Labour MP for Hackney South and Shoreditch, has, among other things, criticised Livingstone for allowing LDA spending of a staggering £140,000 on a drinks party. She felt it was "ridiculously expensive".

Mike Gapes, Labour MP for Ilford South, is critical of Livingstone using his platform as Mayor of London to attack Israel. Gapes feels it's "not helpful to community relations in our city. It is wrong for the Mayor of London to take such an unbalanced view of a conflict issue."

If you want more examples Google the name of a random London Labour MP and Livingstone and then see what comes up. I think my modest efforts above are enough to make the point. Livingstone relationship with New Labour is, as Ann Keen says, utterly cynical.

Comments

[Phil Taylor]

Harry,

Livingstone's own election website, londonforken.co.uk, says "Ken achieved what no one else has done in two decades - to get the funding to go ahead with Crossrail". So your comment from Tony McNulty really made me laugh. "Not terribly helpful".

Please do tell where you found that. It needs to be publicised much more widely.

[Tony Makara]

I believe Mr Livingstone is now suffering from the law of diminishing popularity. Even the Labour party are starting to realise that Livingstone is not quite the pristine politician they believed him to be. Red Ken would be quite justified in looking at the comments above and saying "et tu comrades?"

[Richard Tracey]

I believe most Londoners ( who don't write in the media ) think it's time for a change. He will not survuve 1st May.

[Richard Tracey]

I believe most Londoners ( who don't write in the media ) think it's time for a change. He will not survuve 1st May.

[Roger Evans]

Meg Hillier was previously a London Assembly Member, where she was often critical of the Mayor. Livingstone responded in typical style, calling her 'Malignant Meg'.

[Mr Angry]

Anyone who has been involved in London Labour politics for a while knows the reality of Livingstone. He is even more appalling than the Standard make him out to be and is about as genuinely Labour as David Davis or George Galloway. Livingstone is politically dishonest and has spent his career misusing the Labour party to further his hard left agenda, as sucessful an example of trotskyite entryism as ever there was.

WE MUST GET HIM OUT IN MAY!!!!

[Yet Another Anon]

I can't see Boris Johnson winning the London Mayoral election, obviously Ken Livingstone has lost his popularity, but Boris is not suited to either frontbench roles or something like being a Mayor, as a backbench MP and a journalist and chatshow\gameshow guest he's in his element but his capacity to shoot himself in the foot with both barrels especially when he seems to be doing well is always his undoing.

With the current system I would think it could well end up being between Ken Livingstone and Brian Paddick and while Ken still has to be the favourite, it might be that Mr Paddick just beats him. Either way though I would imagine that this is the final years of Ken Livingstone's career and that he will not be the Labour candidate in 2012 and no Parliamentary constituency will want to select him then either - if he's still alive there will be nothing else for him to do but write his memoirs.

[Fred Baker]

We have to be positive about this. There are 14 other good Tory candidates in this election to back him up. Living Stone is a spent force "Dead Wood" in fact.
If Boris sticks to the policy and has competent advisors he and the rest of the candidates will do very well. I agree he needs to be more forceful not using words like “why don’t we” but “We will”.

[Jane Harper]

Livingstone has not performed on crime, or on congestion. Pity that all we have is that clown to go up against him.

[Not Boris]

Boris has gone quiet again!!