Mayor 'could still take advice from disgraced deputy'

It was revealed today that Ray Lewis could be consulted over matters regarding youth work - but in an informal capacity and without payment.

The Mayor's new chief of staff Tim Parker today told the London Assembly that Mr Lewis's departure from City Hall was a "sad" event and that his expertise should not be ignored.

Mr Lewis was forced to resign as Deputy Mayor for Young People and Opportunities on Friday following the Evening Standard's revelation that he had misleadingly claimed to be a magistrate and had also been barred from ministry in the Church of England.

Today Mr Parker said: "We will be leaving the door open.

"This is a man who has made immense contributions to the field and I can't pretend that he doesn't leave a gap we hadn't planned for.

"I would see it as a very sad state of affairs if someone resigns from office subject to enormous scrutiny and you just write him out of the public equation and are unable to take advantage of whatever he has to contribute.

"Ray is not receiving any remunerationbut he's got something to contribute. There are many people out there who are involved in this very challenging work and it may be the case and I certainly wouldn't want to rule out working with Ray in his capacity at the Eastside Academy."

But the deputy leader of the Labour Assembly members, John Biggs, criticised the decision. He said: "If Boris Johnson is prepared to keep working with Ray Lewis then why did he accept his resignation and cancel the inquiry?

"Of course he has the right to try and clear his name but it is very difficult to see how he could continue his work, valuable as it is, here at City Hall."

Mr Parker also ruled out launching a full-scale inquiry into Mr Lewis, saying that he thought it was a waste of public money.

The new chief of staff also defended the recruitment process at City Hall and said that although he was "disappointed" in the events surrounding Mr Lewis's departure it "did not invalidate the process".

However he said there must be a review of "instances where people don't say 100 per cent of the truth".

Mr Parker, the First Deputy Mayor and chief executive of the GLA Group, was also asked about the lack of women in positions of power at City Hall.

Last month Mr Johnson removed five women from their posts at City Hall including Ken Livingstone's partner, Emma Beal, who was Mr Livingstone's administration manager.

He also decided to scrap the post of "women's adviser", held by Labour activist Anni Marjoram.

But Mr Parker defended the Mayor and insisted he was picking the best candidates regardless of their gender.

He said that it was easier to appoint women to posts for which few qualifications were needed but said that as jobs became more important it was difficult to find suitable candidates.

Mr Parker said: "When you go down the pyramid of an organisation you find many more posts that are open to a broader market and it's much easier there to be more equal, as it were.

"The narrower you get it's tougher and tougher and sometimes you will get a situation where there are more people leaving or more people from one group or another."