Beijing pays £20,000 for Ken’s junket to Games

The former Mayor was flown business class to Beijing and stayed in a £1,100-a-night hotel — then defended the communist regime's human rights record.

Today he was unrepentant at accepting the all-expenses-paid trip, along with his Trotskyite former economics adviser John Ross, which saw the pair given VIP seats for last week's spectacular opening ceremony.

He refused to say whether he had used a programme of meetings with top-level Chinese officials, including the country's finance minister, to question their records on human rights.
Mr Livingstone told the Standard that China was "going in the right direction" on human rights.

He had already insisted on BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the country was not a police state. And speaking on LBC, he played down the Tiananmen Square massacre, saying: "The idea that we have not had similar problems in our past is nonsense."

The city authority of Beijing, which is part of the Chinese regime, paid for the ex-mayor and Mr Ross to stay in the five-star Westin hotel, where the cheapest room during Olympics fortnight, including taxes, costs 9,775 yuan (£763) per night. Mr Livingstone is believed to have stayed in a room costing 14,375 yuan (£1,122) a night.

His room came with a "rainforest shower", a "heavenly bed" and the services of a "bath master" who, in the words of the hotel, "will prepare your bath and fill it with rejuvenating oils".

Mr Livingstone and Mr Ross's flights were worth at least £5,000 each.

Mr Ross, of the Trotskyite splinter group Socialist Action, was one of eight former Livingstone aides who picked up a total of £1.6 million for losing their jobs when he lost the mayoral election.

The pair have returned to London but their trip, including at least three nights accommodation, is estimated to have cost the Chinese just under £20,000.

Mr Livingstone admitted "everything" in his trip had been financed by Chinese authorities and said he had been approached by the Chinese Embassy. "I got an invite from the embassy saying 'We'd like to invite you', and I said, I think people wouldn't understand that.' And they came back and said, No, no, we really think [you should come] because of the work you did with us on the Olympics'," he said.

Mayor Boris Johnson is to arrive in Beijing next week to take possession of the Olympic torch at the closing ceremony. His trip is funded by London taxpayers, but the size of his party and the grade of his hotel has been reduced and he will fly economy.

Mr Livingstone said he thought he had been invited because the Chinese recognised him as a person "who might have some influence in the future".

He criticised the scaling-down of the London presence in Beijing, saying the small saving would cost London considerable investment opportunities. "If I had been Mayor I would have stayed for the whole three weeks," he said.

Asked whether he had raised the issue of human rights with his hosts, Mr Livingstone said: "I regard matters like that as private matters. Why should they take any notice of a country which launched an illegal war and which cooperates with extraordinary rendition?"

Greg Hands, the Tory MP for Hammersmith-Fulham, said he was "appalled" by Mr Livingstone's arrangements. "Maybe Ken was too busy campaigning for re-election to notice the massacre in Tibet," he said.

"I was surprised to hear him defending the Chinese government, but now I find out who was paying his fare it's not so surprising."