Did Ken break rules to win 2004 election?

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A Channel 4 documentary is to claim that the Mayor's inner circle of advisers breached strict rules which ban City Hall employees from working on election campaigns.

The Dispatches programme, to be broadcast on Monday, is to claim that key aides raised funds, wrote articles and conducted briefings for the Mayor's election campaign in 2004 even though they were being paid by the taxpayer at the time.

In the programme a "whistleblower" claims three of the Mayor's most senior advisers ran the campaign while on the public payroll.

Dispatches maintains that although any breach of the GLA rules would not necessarily have been a criminal offence it should still have been punishable by disciplinary action.

The Mayor's office strenuously denies the allegations, which threaten to overshadow Mr Livingstone's battle against Tory candidate Boris Johnson and Liberal Democrat Brian Paddick.

The documentary, presented by New Statesman political editor Martin Bright, reveals details of an alleged smear campaign - initiated by one of the Mayor's most senior advisers, Lee Jasper - against Trevor Phillips before he became chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission.

A spokeswoman for Mr Livingstone dismissed the allegations as a "smear campaign" and claimed the programme was politically motivated.

"Ken Livingstone has pointed out that the broadcasting of such a programme during the run-up to an election, with no equivalent programme on the other candidates, was a violation of all rules of objective coverage of elections," she said.

Len Duvall, chairman of the Greater London Labour Party, said: "These are old issues. If someone had done something wrong in 2004 I would have expected claims to have been made in 2004.

"We want to get on to talk about the issues. Quite frankly, some of these are old smears and our opponents don't want to talk about transport, policing or the environment, where there have been improvements.

"If they have got anything they should put up or shut up. These are diversions because they are afraid to debate the issues."