Labour moves to block Livingstone

Ken Livingstone's drive to be brought back into the Labour fold appeared doomed today as details emerged of the party's plan to choose a candidate for London Mayor by the autumn.

Labour's ruling National Executive Committee is expected to rubber stamp a tight timetable for selecting its mayoral hopeful next week. Under the proposals, the candidate would be in place early in November, a full 18 months before the mayoral election in May 2004.

The plan is seen by Mr Livingstone's allies as a way of ensuring there can be no peace deal allowing him to rejoin the party and stand as its candidate next time round. A deal would be almost impossible to achieve by the proposed September shortlisting period, effectively putting paid to the Mayor's hopes of getting back into Labour.

Any move to let him rejoin the party would mean Labour tearing up its original five-year period of exile imposed on the Left-winger after he quit the party to stand for the mayoralty as an independent in May 2000.

Confirming Mr Livingstone's exile and selecting a candidate to oppose him would set Labour's high command against a large number of the party's London MPs. They argue that to do anything else would be to condemn the party to a repeat of the May 2000 fiasco which saw former health secretary Frank Dobson crash to a humiliating third place behind Mr Livingstone.

Possible Labour contenders include London minister Nick Raynsford, former culture secretary Chris Smith and even former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Mandelson. However, some in the party want to look outside the political arena with support being canvassed for Channel 4 news presenter Jon Snow and even suspended Lambeth police commander Brian Paddick.