Recently I drew attention to Ken Livingstone’s use of staff paid for by the tax payer as part of his campaign for re-election (of course he says the staff in question were just observing him, not playing an active role).
Now though a former staffer, Atma Singh, has come out of the woodwork to disclose that Livingstone used staff paid for by the tax payer to raise money for his campaign in 2004 (shock horror!):
"During the election I did what everybody else was expected to do,
which was raise money for Ken… I vigorously pursued that
[approach] from all the main Asian donors."
Wow, who would have thought it!? Ken Livingstone using tax payer money to bolster his campaign for election. I mean, wow, I’m shocked… no really *cough* I’m shocked…
January 20th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
This is not even the first time THIS WEEK that Mr. L has stood accused of mis-using public funds.
I draw your attention to the following expose by the Today programme.
‘London Mayor Ken Livingstone is facing calls for an independent inquiry into claims that his office ran a campaign to undermine equality chief Trevor Phillips using public money.
The BBC Radio 4 Today programme said that it had obtained emails showing that Mr Livingstone’s controversial equality advisor Lee Jasper orchestrated the campaign to prevent Mr Phillips becoming chairman of the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR).
In one email, Mr Jasper called for the development of a “devastating critique” of Mr Phillips’ tenure in his then job as head of the Commission for Racial Equality.
He was said to have recruited consultant Anne Kane in the summer of 2006 to spearhead the campaign. The Greater London Authority’s head of diversity and performance, Audrey Young, was instructed by Mr Jasper to work with Ms Kane on the campaign.
“This will require your team to provide both full secretariat and policy research support to ensure delivery of this important project,” he informed Ms Young in an email.’
Uncle Ken using public money for a smear campaign - surely some mistake…