Allies battle to survive

Two of Ken Livingstone's key allies are battling for survival in next week's London elections.

Lord Harris and Val Shawcross have championed the Mayor's policies in the emergency services. But both find their seats at risk.

And while opinion polls suggest Mr Livingstone will return for a second term as mayor, he risks losing his grip of the Assembly.

A total of 25 seats are at stake and the Mayor needs more than onethird of the votes to get his annual budgets approved without opposition-support. Labour currently has nine seats, and if the party lost just one, Mr Livingstone would need to rely on deals with opposition parties to ensure the Assembly's approval for his spending plans.

Of Mr Livingstone's key allies, Lord Harris has led the multi-million pound crackdown on inefficiency at Scotland Yard, which was said to be so bad that bills were often paid several times. Ms Shawcross helped with the modernisation of the fire service and with negotiating the end of last year's firefighters' strike.

But both are being targeted by opponents in the 10 June elections at City Hall, with Lord Harris defending a wafer-thin majority from the Tories while Ms Shawcross fears the Lib-Dems in the back yard of their mayoral candidate, Simon Hughes.

Lord Harris, Labour chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority, faces the toughest task in hanging on to his Brent and Harrow seat.

He has a majority of only 4,380 over the Tories, but the Lib-Dems have made major gains since the 2000 elections, most notably winning the Brent East parliamentary byelection.

Though the Lib-Dems are thought to be too far behind to win the Assembly seat, a strong showing alongside Labour voters switching to them or staying at home could allow the Tories to snatch victory.

Ms Shawcross, who chairs the London Fire Authority, is vulnerable from the Lib-Dems in her Lambeth and Southwark constituency. Both borough councils have switched from Labour to Lib-Dem control since the 2000 Assembly elections, and Mr Hughes's parliamentary constituency is in Southwark.