Labour might back Mayor Livingstone

Labour might urge voters to back Ken Livingstone for Mayor of London as part of a compromise plan to avoid a damaging split in the party.

Under plans floated by Charles Clarke, the Labour chairman, the party would not launch a concerted campaign against the independent Mayor at the next poll in 2004. Instead, it would urge Londoners to use their first preference for the Labour candidate and their secondfor Mr Livingstone.

If, as expected, the former Greater London Council leader wins a second term, he would, in effect, have the blessing of the party.

With Mr Livingstone's expulsion due to expire in 2005, he could then be welcomed back to the fold and serve the remainder of his tenure as a Labour Mayor. The party has been trying to reconcile hardliners who refuse to countenance an early return and those who want Mr Livingstone back this summer.

The party's ruling National Executive Committee will decide its procedure for selecting a mayoral candidate at a meeting next month. It has set a 31 August deadline for nominations.

Supporters of Mr Livingstone are lobbying hard for him to be readmitted at the July NEC meeting.

They suggest a truce between a Labour candidate and Mr Livingstone would, in practice, be difficult. But some senior figures are understood to be resisting the return of a man who has ridiculed Labour's public-private partnership plan for the Tube.