Gavron takes race lead

Nicky Gavron pulled ahead today in the contest to become Labour's candidate for Mayor of London.

With a third of the votes counted in the trade union section, the Deputy Mayor began to put clear water between herself and rival Tony Banks.

Her biggest boost was a surprise endorsement from members of the Co-op - the powerful organisation that fixed victory for Frank Dobson over Ken Livingstone in 1999.

The results were greeted with jubilation by friends of Mayor Livingstone, who is backing Ms Gavron's campaign and has agreed a non-aggression pact with her should she emerge as Labour candidate.

By contrast, Mr Banks is a bitter enemy of Mr Livingstone and would target him in the 2004 election.

Geoff Martin, London convener of Unison and Mr Livingstone's strongest union ally, said: "A vote for Nicky is really a vote for Ken. This will give a Ken a leg-up for his re-election as Mayor. Banks looks dead in the water."

A spokesman for Mr Banks called the Co-op result "disappointing" but insisted he could still win among Labour's 49,000 grassroots members in London, who have half the votes in the electoral college being used to select a candidate.

Organisations affiliated to Labour - comprising 15 unions, the Co-op and seven other bodies such as the Fabian Society - have the other half. Senior Coop officials campaigned hard for Mr Banks, and the former sports minister had expected to win the ballot. Instead, the Co-op vote split 56 per cent for Ms Gavron, 38 per cent for Mr Banks and six per cent for the third candidate, former Harrow council leader Bob Shannon.

Ms Gavron also won a big victory from the print workers' union, the GPMU. Earlier in the week, she won the TGWU ballot while Mr Banks won in the shopworkers' union Usdaw.

With four results in, Ms Gavron has nine per cent of the total electoral college, on her way to the 50 per cent target needed for victory. Mr Banks has six per cent and Mr Shannon has one per cent.