Ken must pass 'loyalty test'

Ken Livingstone was heading back into Labour ranks today as he walked out of party headquarters declaring: "It's nice to meet old friends and comrades."

The London Mayor grinned as he left a loyalty test with party officials.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, his staunchest Cabinet opponent, stalked off grim-faced and saying nothing. The interview lasted only 45 minutes and three of the seven panel members failed to turn up, adding to a belief at Westminster that the decision to readmit the Mayor to the party four years after his expulsion had already been taken. The ruling national executive was expected to confirm the readmission later today, with Tony Blair in attendance. Mr Livingstone will then be rubber-stamped as the candidate in the June mayoral election with a ballot of Labour members and trade union leaders. His rivals for Mayor condemned the deal. Tory Steve Norris called it a "total stitch-up" and Lib-Dem Simon Hughes said it was a "remarriage of convenience".

In his loyalty test, Mr Livingstone was asked to give assurances that he would stick to party rules and allow Labour members of the London Assembly to draft his manifesto.

A Labour spokesman described the meeting as "constructive".

Mr Livingstone said as he left: "People see the record of what I have done for three-anda-half years as Mayor. The election is about my record. That's there for the Labour Party to judge."

Asked if he would now refrain from criticising US President George Bush - who he described as "the greatest threat to life on this planet" - Mr Livingstone smiled and replied: "George Bush is not a Labour Party member."

Besides Mr Prescott, the panel grilling the Mayor at Labour HQ in Westminster consisted of party chairman Ian McCartney and union officials Mary Turner and Mike Griffiths.

Cabinet big- hitters including Gordon Brown, Charles Clarke and Jack Straw, remain fiercely opposed to Mr Livingstone. They say the former GLC leader has broken past pledges of loyalty to Labour.

But the party was faced with little choice but to readmit him after Nicky Gavron, selected a year ago as mayoral candidate, pulled out of the race last month following a slump in her poll rating to less than 10 per cent.

The Mayor's backers warned that if he was not brought back, Labour would do better to pull out and give a clear run to an independent Mr Livingstone. He received a fiveyear ban when he stood against Frank Dobson, the official Labour candidate, in London's first mayoral election in 2000.

Green Party rival Darren Johnson said: " Loyalty to London is the real test, not loyalty to Blairism. I think it is cynical opportunism that is leading Livingstone into the Labour fold."