Ken Livingstone has admitted stealing Boris Johnson's key policies in an attempt to revive his faltering re-election campaign.

The Mayor said he would copy the Tory's pledge to force youths who misbehave on buses and are stripped of free travel to carry out community service to get it back. He said he had already borrowed the idea of free bus travel for injured armed forces veterans.

Speaking at a debate between the three leading candidates, he said: "I'm stealing your policies. What sort of idiot, when they hear a good idea, wouldn't take it on board?" Under "Payback London" proposed by Mr Johnson, children stripped of the free travel privileges for the under-16s could earn it back by completing community service such as removing graffiti or cleaning up fly-tipping. Mr Livingstone has already admitted that he stole his main new policy idea - a £25 congestion charge for gas guzzlers - from the Green Party candidate Si‚n Berry He revealed this month: "When I saw Si‚n come up with the plan, I thought, 'I'll steal that'."

Mr Livingstone pledged not to increase the congestion charge over the next four years, after the £25 gas guzzler charge comes in this autumn.

"If I'm elected, the £25 charge will come in, the courts permitting, this October, but that will be the only increase in the next four years," he said. The policy-grab admission came as he issued a heartfelt plea to Londoners to give him the time to finish off the job, saying: "The best is yet to come."

AYouGov poll for the Standard yesterday put him 10 points behind Mr Johnson on first preference votes and 12 points adrift in a second round. Mr Johnson, who is leading in the polls, has been pushing the message that it is time for a change at City Hall.

And the Mayor, who has been damaged by allegations that he is past his sell-by date, offered the first public sign that he has accepted he may not win the election.

He told the Evening Standard/ITV London Tonight debate at Cadogan Hall: "This is not a tired administration, it's an administration with its best yet to come, and a London with its best to come."

However, the Mayor then gave a valedictorysounding address, raising for the first time the possibility he may not be re-elected. "Whether I win this election or not, the thing that will matter most to me on that Friday is that the BNP haven't won a platform at City Hall for their venom and their hatred and intolerance," he said.

Mr Livingstone urged voters to "judge me on what we've done" after a string of policies from providing more police to bringing in the congestion charge.

But Mr Johnson said: "If you're going to have a congestion charge and you're going to drive people through London, then at the very least you owe them a congestion free-er zone. At the moment they're paying more but getting more congestion in the zone." Liberal Democrat Brian Paddick attacked Mr Livingstone for his failure to negotiate with the train operating companies to allow Oyster cards on their services. "I think if he had a less confrontational approach with people generally, then we'd probably get a lot more co-operation," he said.

The Mayor replied: "I couldn't have been less confrontational with the train operating companies... They've put this off and off and off. They're a private company and I can't tell WHSmith how to run their business."

Mr Johnson and Mr Paddick, both of whom said they would publish details of mayoral advisers on the internet, criticised the Mayor for a lack of transparency at City Hall.

But the Tory was heckled from the floor after he promised an open recruitment process but then failed to say who he already had lined up.

Mr Livingstone came under yet more pressure to declare his campaign donations, which go via the Labour party, even though the Electoral Commission ruled he had not had broken any rules.

He said: "Boris has chosen to personally fundraise. I think that's a big mistake... I don't want to know who gives to my campaign because when I take a decision, I don't want to think it will be influenced in any way."

The Mayor wound up the debate with a warning of the rising threat from the BNP, which could win a seat on the London Assembly if it takes more than five per cent of the vote.

"Our success is based on the diversity of this city. Resisting intolerance and bigotry is key. Nothing would be more damaging than to wake up on 2 May and discover the BNP has been elected to City Hall," he said.

"So whether you vote for any of us three or for Si‚n Berry, vote for the legitimate candidates who want this city to be a tolerant and open one. The more people that vote, the more difficult for the BNP."

More...

Click here to watch the whole debate, then click on Mayor Election Campaign News then "Mayor Debate: The Whole Event"
Click here to watch 10 minute highlights of the event
YouVote: Watch the debate and submit your own videos and views here

• 

  All I want to know is... how big is my bonus?

  Cityboy is the banker who made his name by telling all about his wild times in high finance. Now as bonus season approaches, he says the City is filled with fear - and greed

  ---

• 

  No sex in New Moon please, we're vampires

  Film review: The creepiest thing about the second adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight books - New Moon - is its obsession with teenage celibacy

  ---