Paddick calls Ken a 'nasty little man'

In an interview with the Evening Standard, Mr Paddick said the Mayor's "appalling record of maladministration", his cronyism and his attempt to set up a "socialist republic" at City Hall all made him unfit for office.

By contrast, the former Met police officer said that Boris Johnson "appears to be somewhat eccentric but otherwise really harmless as an individual" - though he stressed he would never employ his Conservative rival to run a business.

Mr Paddick also declared that Met Commissioner Sir Ian Blair was a "Stalinist" and said that he should not be given a second term at the helm of Scotland Yard.

He said that current Northern Ireland police chief Sir Hugh Orde should be Sir Ian's replacement because he was more of a "copper's copper" who could push through reforms.

Mr Paddick, who beat his target time of five hours in Sunday's London Marathon, made it clear that he was now ready for the final straight of the mayoral race.

With just over two weeks left until polling day, the former Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Met unleashed a vitriolic assault on the Mayor's character and record.

He said: "I am really trying to get my head around this. Do you want somebody who is a really nasty little man in the shape of Ken Livingstone, very unpleasant and rather nasty, or somebody who just appears to be somewhat eccentric but otherwise really harmless as an individual - except I wouldn't trust him to run anything for me?"

Mr Paddick said that Mr Livingstone's reliance on a tight-knit circle of Leftwing advisers meant that he had stopped listening to Londoners.

"He is someone who treats anybody who has any criticism of him with complete contempt - whether it is the Evening Standard or the young woman at a mayoral hustings, claiming she was on drugs because she dared to criticise the bus service."

Mr Paddick said he was not "equidistant" between his Labour and Conservative opponents and confirmed he seriously considered an approach from David Cameron to be the party's candidate.

"I didn't say I was equidistant between the two of them. It is very difficult to gauge where I am between the other two candidates because it is like comparing chalk and cheese.

"I seriously considered, for a few hours, the approach from the Conservatives. But on principle I couldn't stand for what the Conservatives stand for. I am a Liberal Democrat, that's where my heart lies." Mr Paddick said he would try to work with the Met chief if elected but stressed that his days were numbered. "I spent 30 years in the police and it became increasingly Stalinist in the restrictions that the Commissioner and Dick Fedorcio [director of public affairs] placed on senior officers and what they could say. This is what happens in times of trouble, you batten down the hatches, and Ian Blair was in a lot of trouble.

"Most Londoners now wonder whose side the police are on, when they phone up either the police don't come or they can't get an answer on the phone. Or even when the police do come, they don't seem to do anything when you are a victim of crime.

"No commissioner in the Met has ever had a second term, which is what Ken Livingstone has called for and I wouldn't support that. I think it's important to have a regular change of Commissioner and there is at least one potentially good candidate on the horizon."

When asked who that would be, he replied: "I mean Sir Hugh Orde. If Sir John Stevens and Sir Ian Blair had a love child, it would be Sir Hugh Orde in that he has the modernising, liberal approach that Sir Ian had, but he has the " copper's copper" style and approachability of Sir John." When asked if there was a "crony" relationship between Sir Ian and Mr Livingstone, Mr Paddick replied: "I think there is. There are examples where Sir Ian has been very obliging to the Labour Party to the extent that people were wondering whether they were related, Tony and Ian."

Mr Paddick said he had been more of a figurehead for London than the Mayor after the London bombings in 2005.

"When London faced its most serious test since the Second World War after 7 July, I was the figurehead for the police and arguably, bearing in mind I got more airtime than he did, even more of a figurehead than Ken Livingstone was on that occasion," he said.

LIB-DEM ON POLICY AND PERSONAL LIFE

MURDER 'EPIDEMIC'

The number of parents who have come up to me and said, "When our teenage children go out at night, we are on edge until we hear the key in the lock".

These are affluent parents, genuinely concerned their children may get involved in something that, with so many guns and knives about, either through accident or design they end up being killed.

It used to be gangs and then "maybe people within the black community on deprived innercity estates who need to carry a knife or a gun to protect themselves from the gangs". Now it's much wider.

We used to deal with murder on the basis that it was a tiny proportion of society. You were able to lock the people up for a long time and solve the problem. It's not like that any more - this is an epidemic, not a series of isolated incidents.

The most important thing to do is to take the guns and knives off the streets.

BUSES

What we have is all the bus drivers encased in Perspex who only get out of their cab for a pee or a cigarette.

You've got sometimes relatively harmless but very boisterous children making life a nuisance for all the other passengers.

All it would take is for the bus driver to stop the bus and go upstairs and speak to the young people and say, "If you don't behave yourselves, this bus isn't going anywhere". In appropriate circumstances, they should intervene.

CHILDREN/PRIVATE LIFE

When I was married I did regret that my wife didn't want children. Dear Mary thought it would spoil her figure.

She now has a child and I'm very happy for her. I'm getting a bit too old and selfish to have children - even adopted ones.

Politicians should be allowed to choose how much of their private lives they give away.