Mayor Ken and partner Kate split

Mayor Ken Livingstone today said he was splitting from his partner of 20 years, Kate Allen.

Mr Livingstone, 56, and Ms Allen issued a short statement following months of speculation at Romney House. Ms Allen, 45 and a former Camden councillor, is the UK Director of Amnesty International.

The couple met when Mr Livingstone served on Camden council between 1978 and 1982. Mr Livingstone divorced his wife Christine in 1982. After many years sharing a home in Cricklewood, he and Ms Allen bought a house in Brighton.

The statement issued by the Mayor's office said: "Kate Allen and Ken Livingstone wish to announce that following several months apart they have decided to separate. Ken and Kate remain good friends. Neither will make any further comment now or in the future."

One friend said: "I am distressed for both of them but they are both sensible people and will not have taken this decision lightly. They were a very close couple but both have jobs which mean they spent long periods apart. Kate's job meant that, if anything, she travelled more than he did."

The couple were rarely seen together at public functions. Ms Allen took care to ensure she continued to be perceived as a figure in her own right. They have never given a joint interview and Mr Livingstone has previously expressed his pride that only two photographs exist of them together. The Press, they decided, would "trivialise and humiliate" their private life.

Ms Allen is a former deputy chair of the British Refugee Council, where she negotiated with home secretaries, and Mr Livingstone once said: "She couldn't be seen as an appendage of me."

Their private time was spent with a small circle of friends. It is known that Mr Livingstone valued Ms Allen's counsel and that she exerted considerable influence on him. As he struggled to decide whether to challenge Labour and fight the mayoralty as an independent candidate, he disclosed that much of his decision would rest upon the view she took. She was reported to have urged him to stay inside the party and not run for Mayor, but when the crunch came, she is believed to have strongly backed his decision.