'Timid' Ming blamed over failed Dyke-for-Mayor plot

The secret plan to install the former BBC chief as an independent candidate collapsed yesterday after talks between Sir Menzies Campbell and David Cameron broke up without agreement.

But the fall-out from the failed deal, exclusively revealed by the Standard, continued today as the Tories claimed that former Lib-Dem mayoral candidate Simon Hughes was among senior figures who backed the idea.

Senior party figures said Mr Hughes and Lib-Dem peer Lord Clement-Jones had played a key role in trying to get a candidate who could be jointly backed by the Conservatives. The Tories tried to fight back from the chaos of the collapsed plot by announcing the timetable for their candidate selection for the next year's mayoral election.

Mr Cameron has decided to revert to his idea of a US-style primary, with a candidate finally in place by this autumn - just six months before polling day next May.

All London voters will be given a say in the Tory selection. As the Tories and Lib-Dems blamed each other for the farce, Mr Livingstone gleefully denounced the plot as proof that Mr Cameron wanted to stab Tory hopefuls for Mayor in the back.

Mr Livingstone said: "I feel sorry for the Tory candidates for Mayor. At least Tony Blair was open about it and tried to stab me in the front over the selection in 2000 - whereas David Cameron goes around stabbing his candidates in the back."

Mr Livingstone - who will run for a third term next year - said: "It will be pure hypocrisy when the Tory leadership declares they have full confidence in their candidate because their leader has actually spent months trying to find an alternative and clearly has no confidence in them at all."

Mr Hughes said he he had been discussing "all options" that would comply with his party's rules. "I've simply been saying to people we should rule nothing out. That was neither enthusiasm for nor pouring cold water on particular ideas," he said.

Mr Hughes said neither the Tories nor Lib-Dems could agree a formal joint candidate.

Tories blamed Sir Ming's "timidity" for the collapse of the plan. "He said he was worried he would end up in the High Court. David was trying to be imaginativeand focus on the art of the possible", a senior source said.

But there were recriminations within the Conservatives as hopefuls who have been campaigning for months realised that they could have been thrown overboard for Mr Dyke.

Nicholas Boles, one of the favourite Tory candidates, made his anger plain. "Greg Dyke has achieved a great deal in his life - but he is not and never will be a Conservative," he said.

A Tory campaign official complained meanwhile: "We don't need a celebrity - we need to get behind one of the candidates and make him or her into a celebrity while there is still time."