Comment: By clinging on, Ken has damaged himself

Just two days later, Mr Jasper is no longer working for Mr Livingstone, at least for now. If you believe the City Hall press release, Ken's equalities adviser is the first public official in history to be suspended and referred to the police because he is completely innocent. In practice, something must have changed over the past 48 hours to prompt this damaging action.

Has new evidence become known to Mr Livingstone that would make his adviser's position untenable? Has the LDA's internal investigation turned up a Jasper equivalent of that memo where David Blunkett ordered officials to fast-track the nanny's visa?

The Mayor this week raged at the London Assembly for not questioning Mr Jasper sooner than their planned date of 5 March. But having gone through what he would say to them, has City Hall now realised there are some questions from the Assembly Lee Jasper wouldn't be able to answer?

It will be interesting to see whether Mr Jasper still agrees to meet the Assembly. Or will he say that because he's been suspended, he doesn't have to? Will City Hall use the police inquiry into Mr Jasper to claim that his conduct is now sub judice and can no longer be discussed?

Or is the suspension for a simpler reason: that in the past two days, the political pressure on Mr Livingstone has finally reached a tipping point? For 10weeks now, the Mayor has been claiming that there is nothing in this; it is all "racist smears" and a political witch-hunt by one newspaper for which there is "no evidence".

As the evidence - leaked emails, whistleblower testimony, internal inquiries - has grown to voluminous levels, and the coverage has spread far beyond the Evening Standard, that claim is no longer tenable.

Mr Livingstone has allowed his dislike of the Standard to blind him to the fact that there is a serious set of questions about organisations run by Mr Jasper's friends.

A more cautious politician would have suspended Mr Jasper weeks ago. By clinging to him for so long, the Mayor has done himselfmore damage than he needed to. The question is whether this suspension lances the boil - or whether it fuels a story that has now acquired a momentum of its own.