Ken must explain these payments

The Standard's investigation has found that at least £2.5 million of public money has been given to a shadowy network of businesses and NGOs directly linked to Mr Jasper and his close friends and associates, many of them supposedly operating out of the same small room in Kennington.

Hundreds of thousands of pounds are unaccounted for or have disappeared, while several of the companies have gone bust or are dormant. One such organisation, the African Caribbean Business Network, received £535,000 from the LDA over one three-year period to hold workshops for black business people, yet spent only £75,000 on its charitable objectives.

The amount of money involved and the number of unanswered questions surrounding it demand a detailed official explanation. Yet despite the fact that the GLA itself opened an investigation into the payments, the Mayor's response has been a flat denial of any wrongdoing and a bizarre accusation that the Standard's reporter, Andrew Gilligan, has acted out of racial motivation. Such accusations are nonsense, and ignore the fact that very few in London's black community regard Mr Jasper or the organisations involved, such as the Black Londoners Forum, as their representatives.

This simply will not do: Londoners need to know now what has happened to this money and, if it cannot be accounted for, how City Hall's accounting procedures have gone awry. But we should also ask how it was that this group of shell organisations, mostly consisting of a few members and controlled by the same individuals, were able to monopolise funds that were ostensibly aimed at some of London's poorest communities. It is vital that money is used to boost the skills of low-income black Londoners; there is no evidence that these payments helped these organisations achieve any such thing. It is the black community that is the poorer. Mr Livingstone and Mr Jasper owe London a full explanation.