Ken: my hopes for second term

Now for the hard part. After all the excitement of his re-election as Mayor of London last week, Ken Livingstone today faces the daunting task of tackling the raft of problems confronting the capital.

In his first interview since his victory, he told the Evening Standard about his ambitions for a second term, his hopes of staging the Olympics, and fears of Labour losing the next general election.

Sitting in his office overlooking Tower Bridge, the Mayor acknowledged the 10 key challenges we posed yesterday, on everything from getting the Crossrail link finally started to halting fare rises.He admitted that it had taken until well into his first term just to get the job of Mayor "cranked up from scratch", but made clear that the next four years would be dominated by radical action.

On the Tube, he warned that Londoners would face a decade of weekend repair closures but claimed the reward of smoother journeys and more trains would be worth it.

He was "convinced" that his target for building 30,000 cheap homes a year would be met - and that more government money could be found to fund more police, better childcare and an air pollution clampdown.

Mr Livingstone even hinted that extending the congestion charge was not his first priority. Downing Street would "bust a gut" to ensure London won the Olympics and Gordon Brown's spending review next month was likely to deliver a boost to the city with cash for Crossrail and other projects, he said. Mr Livingstone revealed his fear of losing to Steve Norris, confessing that he had even compiled a resignation speech just in case the worst occurred last Friday and his Tory rival had snatched an 11th-hour win.

Family life

For the first time, he talked frankly about his desire to see more of his children, and the importance of family in his life.

But, just in case anyone thought the Mayor was getting soft, he launched perhaps his most strident attack on George Bush and urged Tony Blair not to send more troops to Iraq. With two young children himself, Ken Livingstone said he would like to see a four-day week.

"I think it would be lovely. The five-day week of nine to five, with an hour for lunch, half-hour tea break and half-hour coffee break was tolerable. The five-day now is often eight to six and a snack at your desk. Under that pressure I think a three-day weekend at least leaves some sort of family life."

He admits: "All my conscious time I'm working", even thinking while swimming and gardening. But his children are a priority: "This didn't apply during the election, but I try to stick to a rule that Monday to Friday I get home three nights before 7pm so I can see them before they go to bed."

The Mayor's health

Asked if he is physically up to the job, he replied: "Yeah. They do a huge medical on me because they have to have by-election insurance. If I drop dead, the cost of the election is £11 million. So last year they insured my life at £85,000 premium. I'm actually healthier this year than last year. My heart rate has gone down."

A third term

Mr Livingstone made clear that he wanted to be in power for eight more years - but added: "This is the last political job of my life. I'm not looking beyond it."

He said he had expected a tight race with Steve Norris: "In that last weekend [before the election] I had to think in terms of what I would say if I lost. I had my speech in my head.

"I was going to end it by saying, 'I've got good and bad news for Steve. The good news is he's about to have the best four years of his life. The bad news is I enjoyed it so much I'll see him in 2008 and we'll make it the best of three.'"

Tube and bus fares

He said one of his most difficult challenges was halting dramatic fare increases on the Tube. He pledged in the election campaign to peg rises to inflation, but concedes this will be tough. "The government line is they won't give money to keep fares down. I will get money out of them to do all the other things but not that."

He said he may move the annual fare decision to coincide with the Mayor's budget in March, to concentrate his opponents' minds. "Because quite honestly if the council tax doesn't go up, then fares go up more. Effectively the decision on fares is largely in the hands of Government."

Tube repairs

He said he expected to see, "quite substantial improvements and if we don't I expect to see those contracts [with the private firms doing the work] revisited.

"But it does mean that every weekend for the next decade somewhere in London some part of the Tube will be closed.

"It is a real hassle, I know that because Wembley Park near where I live is affected now. That is not a one-off. Londoners are going to have to get used to checking first if they are making an Underground journey at the weekend. But the increase in capacity of 15 per cent that we should get at the end of all tghis will be worth it.

Tube unions

The Mayor conceded the RMT's threat to strike on polling day could have derailed his chances of re-election. But he defended Bob Crow, the union's leader, who persuaded colleagues to call off the strike, and refused to rule out reappointing him to the Transport for London board next week.

"We are talking about four members of the national executive [who were behind the strike threat]. Steve Norris and Simon Hughes said sack Bob Crow, but I say Bob Crow is the reasonable face of trade unionism in the RMT. You go and interview the others, the really scary ones."

Mr Livingstone said he sympathised with the union's bid for a 35-hour working week but it could be funded only by ending restrictive practices. "If we could pin this down there is a really good chance of three years of the quietest industrial situation we've ever had," he said.

Affordable housing

The Mayor was today publishing a consultation paper on planning guidance on getting 50 per cent of all new homes made affordable. "We have had a 52 per cent increase in housing completions in the last four years, the highest since 1980. We are on course for 10,000 affordable homes this year and we can get that up to 15,000. I'm confident we can hit that target in the next four years."

London Assembly

A defiant Mr Livingstone stressed that as chief executive of the Greater London Authority he had much more power than the Assembly.

"He said. "My budget is 60 per cent government grant, 30 per cent fares and seven per cent council tax. Each year we build up to this huge theatrical performance of making some change to the seven per cent. Whereas the real story is the endless meetings with government ministers."

Childcare

With Government backing, the Mayor wants to offer affordable childcare to all by 2010. He said: "The only thing personal experience of childcare has taught me is that I can't conceive of how anybody does it on their own.

"And given single parents are going to be a major part of the London community for some time you've actually got to put in place structures that allow them to work. That's only part of it. It's breaking the cycle of poverty by getting kids to arrive at primary school with some basic skills and socialisation."