Ken Livingstone was born in Streatham on 14th June 1945. Ken Livingstone's father was a window cleaner and merchant seaman and his mother was a shop worker, dancer and usherette. He was educated at St Leonard's Church of England School and Tulse Hill Comprehensive.

He joined the London Labour Party in 1969.  After eight years working as a technician at the Chester Beatty Cancer Research Institute, he entered Phillipa Fawcett Teacher Training College in 1970, qualifying in 1973.

Between 1971 and 1978 he served as a member of Lambeth Council, holding the position of vice-chair of the housing committee from 1971-73. In 1978 he was elected to Camden Council where he remained until 1982. While on Camden council, Livingstone gave permission for a strike by local government workers during the Winter of Discontent to be settled with a high pay offer; the District Auditor later ruled this amounted to illegal expenditure and a breach of fiduciary duty, but Livingstone was not surcharged.

Greater London Council

In 1973 he was elected as a Labour member of the Greater London Council [GLC]. He was Vice-Chair of Housing Management from 1974 to 1975 and was elected Leader in 1981. In the GLC election of May 7, 1981, Livingstone moved constituencies to marginal Paddington. The Labour Party narrowly won control with the moderate Andrew McIntosh as leader having denied that he would be deposed. The day after the election, Livingstone challenged McIntosh for the leadership, and defeated him by 30 votes to 20. This was the culmination of a long process in which the left had organized to ensure its members were selected as GLC candidates, and all voted as a bloc within the Labour Party. They had also ensured that the left had control of the Labour manifesto for the election.

The GLC then set about reducing bus and London Underground fares, subsidized by a special 'supplementary rate' in a policy known as 'Fares Fair.' Although the measure was generally popular and led to an increase in the use of public transportation, it was challenged by the Conservative-controlled council of Bromley, where there were no London Underground stations, and struck down by the Law Lords in December of 1981.

Despite his defeat in the fares battle, Livingstone would remain a thorn in the Conservatives' side, openly antagonizing the Thatcher government by posting a billboard of London's rising unemployment figures on the roof of County Hall, the GLC headquarters, directly across the Thames from the Palace of Westminster. Under Livingstone, the GLC pursued a variety of unconventional and controversial measures (some critics have called "socialist"): sponsoring an 'Antiracist Year,' providing city grants to such groups as 'Babies Against the Bomb,' and declaring London a 'nuclear-free zone.' Livingstone made perhaps his most controversial move in December 1982, when the GLC extended an official invitation to Sinn Féin leaders Gerry Adams and Danny Morrison. In the event, Adams and Morrison were denied entry into the country under the Prevention of Terrorism Act and met with Livingstone in Northern Ireland instead. When Adams was elected to Westminster, the ban was lifted. After meeting him, Livingstone said that Britain's treatment of the Irish over the last 800 years had been worse than Hitler's treatment of the Jews.

Such actions made Livingstone a favourite target for the press. He acquired the nickname 'Red Ken' and The Sun described him as 'the most odious man in Britain.' However, he remained popular with the voters,  and in 1982 he came in second to the Pope in BCC Radio 4's Today programme's 'Man of the Year'.

Livingstone's preference for practical politics, which was being demonstrated at a time when the rest of the Labour left were more interested in theoretical debates, may in part explain why his popularity grew. Other politicians identified as the 'hard left,' such as Tony Benn and the Militant Tendency, found themselves increasingly isolated from the general public.

Following the Conservative sweep in the 1983 general election, the Tories forged ahead with their long-standing plan to abolish the GLC and devolve control to the individual boroughs. The GLC mounted a massive (and expensive) campaign to 'save London's democracy,' while the proposed abolition bill (which also abolished six other Labour-controlled metropolitan councils, including Merseyside) faced opposition from politicians on all sides, including former Conservative Prime Minister Edward Heath. On August 2, 1984, Livingstone and three other Labour councillors resigned, forcing byelections that they intended to serve as a referendum on the abolition issue. John Wilson, the Labour Chief Whip, served temporarily as Council Leader. However, the Conservatives cannily chose not to contest the byelections, and the voter turnout was far smaller than Livingstone had hoped for. On December 15, 1984, the House of Commons passed the Local Government Act of 1985 by a relatively slim twenty-three vote margin. The GLC was formally abolished at midnight on March 31, 1986. 

Shortly after the abolition of the GLC, Livingstone won the Brent East parliamentary seat.

Parliament

From 1987 to June 2001, he served as Labour Member of Parliament for Brent East. He was elected as member of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party between 1987 to 1989, and from 1997 to 1998, defeating Peter Mandelson to gain election.

 Greater London Authority

Livingstone was once again re-elected in the 1997 general election, in which Labour was returned to power under the leadership of Tony Blair. Among Labour's proposals was the establishment of a Greater London Authority with powers similar to the old GLC; this new body would be headed by an elected mayor, the first in London's history.

Livingstone was widely tipped for this new post. He still enjoyed a great popularity among Londoners, as evidenced by the massive 14% swing to Labour in the 1997 election for Brent East. The mayoral election was scheduled for 2000, and in 1999 Labour began the long and trying process of selecting its candidate. Despite Blair's personal antipathy, Livingstone was included on Labour's shortlist in November 1999, with the understanding that he would not run as an independent if he failed to secure the party's nomination.

Labour chose its official candidate on February 20, 2000. Although Livingstone received a healthy majority of the total votes, he nevertheless lost the nomination to former Secretary of State for Health Frank Dobson, under a system in which votes from sitting Labour MPs, MEPs, and GLA members were weighted more heavily than votes from rank-and-file members. Using the votes cast by a handful of union barons, Dobson, who was pressured by Tony Blair to stand down from the Cabinet and run for the post, managed to secure the Labour candidacy by the narrowest of margins over Livingstone, with Glenda Jackson coming third in the poll.

Speculation swirled that Livingstone would renege on his earlier pledge and run against Dobson; on March 6 he ended the suspense and announced an independent candidacy. He was suspended from the Labour Party the same day and expelled on April 4.

But he decisively beat Dobson and all the other candidates in an incident-filled election, becoming the first modern elected Mayor of London.

One of the key points of conflict between Labour and Livingston has been the proposed partial privatization of the London Underground. Livingstone had proposed that funds should be raised to improve the Tube infrastructure by a public bonds issue, as had been done in the case of the New York City Subway. But Labour kept pushing their public-private partnership scheme, to which Livingstone was forced to concede, after he lost a legal challenge in July 2002.

London Congestion Charge

Livingstone was also instrumental in introducing the London Congestion Charge, in the face of strong opposition and much skepticism, in an attempt to reduce traffic congestion in central London. The Charge has seen traffic levels fall by 18% and bus passenger numbers rise.

Ken Livingstone (Labour): 36.7% Steve Norris (Conservative): 29.0% Simon Hughes (Liberal Democrats): 15.2% Frank Maloney (UK Independence Party): 6.2% Lindsey German (Respect): 3.6% Julian Leppert (British National Party): 3.1% Darren Johnson (Green Party): 3.1% Others: 3.1%

His early title of "Red Ken" given to him by the tabloids is still used by many, particularly the businesses opposed to the charge. Ironically, the idea emerged from the business community before being promoted and implemented by Mayor Livingstone.

 
Livingstone was re-elected Mayor of London in 2004. When all the candidates except Livingstone and Norris were eliminated and the second preferences of those voters who had picked neither Livingstone or Norris as their first choice were counted, Livingstone won with 55.39% to Norris's 44.61%. Some commentators believed that his re-election as mayor was hindered rather than helped by his readmission to the Labour party.

Ken Livingstone was publically criticised in February 2005 after it was inferred that he had compared a Jewish Evening Standard reporter to a concentration camp guard after he tried to interview him after a party. The London

 Assembly voted unanimously for him to issue an apology but he did not, stating, 'The form of words I have used are right. I have nothing to apologise for.' 

Livingstone further sparked controversy in a March 2005 commentary in The Guardian where he accused Israel's prime minister Ariel Sharon of being a war criminal, citing his involvement in the Sabra and Shatila massacre and accusations of ethnic cleansing.

President Hugo Chávez

On May 15, 2006 President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela  become the second head of state - after the Queen - to be welcomed to London's City Hall. Kenneth Robert Livingstone   At the World Economic Forum, 26 January 2008 In February of 2007 Ken Livingstone, in a ceremony at London City Hall, signed an oil deal with Venezuela - providing cheap fuel for London's buses and giving cut price travel for those on benefits. The mayor of London said the agreement will help provide half-price bus and tram travel to some 250,000 Londoners on income support. Representatives from the Venezuelan government and the oil company Petróleos de Venezuela Europa (PDVE) were at the ceremony. The incoming London Mayor Mr Boris Johnston quicky axed the oil deal within weeks of taking office. At the time he said: "I think many Londoners felt uncomfortable about the buses of one of the world's financial powerhouses being funded by the people of a country where many live in extreme poverty." Mr Livingstone attacked the move as "a direct attack on the poorest Londoners".

 

Related links London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games Mayor's Observer article London Development Agency British Olympic Association British Paralympic Association International Olympic Committee

"These will be magical Games, London is world famous for its theatre and there is no bigger show on earth than an Olympic Opening ceremony," said Jude Kelly, director of the London 2012 Culture, Art and Education Committee. London will be transformed over the next seven years into an Olympic Host City designed to provide athletes, the Olympic families and spectators with the best possible Olympic Games and Paralympic Games venues and conditions - and to inspire more young people to take up Olympic sport. London's transport system will also be upgraded over the next seven years with a £17 billion government investment strategy that will include a special rapid shuttle service that will ferry passengers at Games time from central London to the Olympic Park in just seven minutes.