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Ken confronted over grant scandal
Ross Lydall, City Hall Editor18.12.07
Ken Livingstone was involved in a dramatic confrontation with a former employee who was sacked after questioning the apparent misuse of huge amounts of public funds.
The Mayor was challenged by lawyer Brenda Stern over the role played by his aide Lee Jasper in a London Development Agency decision to spend £346,000 on a project run by an organisation called Diversity International.
In an interview for the Evening Standard yesterday, she claimed the Mayor was either lying or being lied to about the grants.
Today she and Andrew Gilligan, the Standard journalist behind the reports, became involved in a heated exchange with the Mayor during his weekly press conference at City Hall.
When another Standard journalist asked the Mayor to respond to yesterday's article, Ms Stern, who was in the front row with Mr Gilligan, demanded that a fuller answer be given to her accusations.
Mr Livingstone responded angrily: "That is all you are going to get. I have taken legal advice. Give us some evidence. We will respond to it."
When Ms Stern, who rose to her feet, continued, Mr Livingstone went on: "We are not taking this. Don't turn up with a stunt like this."
Ms Stern replied: "Don't accuse me of pulling a stunt."
Mr Livingstone: "This is a stunt. Can I just advise you what you say doesn't land you in court. This is a press conference, not a place for disgruntled former employees to have stunts."
Noting how angry Ms Stern had become, the Mayor added: "I would hate to see you when you are miserable."
Mr Gilligan then asked the Mayor to respond to the initial question, but he replied: "Don't shout or try and provoke me. I would urge you to be more cautious with the wild allegations you have made."
Ms Stern was dismissed from her post as a senior manager at the LDA after raising concerns about the involvement in the Diversity International grant decision of policing and equalities adviser Mr Jasper, a friend of Diversity International boss Joel O'Loughlin.
The Mayor's statement today claimed a series of articles in the Standard over 10 days had presented "grave allegations" without evidence.
He said: "In light of this, the Greater London Authority has now demanded a full and unequivocal retraction of these allegations by the Evening Standard and the printing of a public apology." He repeated his call for Mr Gilligan, who he accused of quoting selectively from emails to discredit Mr Jasper, to be sacked by the Standard's editor.
"This systematic record of unproven allegations and falsifications is why I have called on Veronica Wadley to dismiss Andrew Gilligan," the Mayor said.
He said an internal LDA review of a series of grants that was already under way would include any evidence presented to it by Mr Gilligan.
Ms Stern, who was invited by Mr Gilligan to address the Mayor, told him: "I'm more than happy to give you evidence." She said her reputation as a lawyer was at stake because of the Mayor's refusal to act on her allegations, which centre on the belief that public money was wasted to prop up Diversity International following Mr Jasper's intervention.
The LDA paid the Liverpool-based firm around £50,000 more than its contract, which was to provide a website to help black firms. It won the contract despite having little expertise in the area.
The situation became further confused today when Mr Livingstone said that because Mr Jasper was one of the two "political appointments" he had been allowed to make without a formal job advert or reference to the candidate's ability, Mr Jasper had no power to direct other staff.
This may conflict with an email exchange between Mr Jasper and LDA chief executive Manny Lewis regarding Ms Stern, who was on secondment from a City law firm, in which Mr Jasper advises: "Send her back."
Today the Mayor said of his political appointees: "They're not allowed to issue any form of directive to any other member of staff."
The Standard investigation has uncovered questions over a series of grants, worth around £2.5 million in total, made by the LDA to organisations with which Mr Jasper has links. In several cases Mr Gilligan's investigations have raised questions about how the money was spent and the results - or lack of them - that were achieved.
Reader views (19)
Red Ken as usual is caught out. He should go now!
- Jacqueline, Hampstead, London
When is the District Auditor going to start investigating all this? That is the only right and proper course to follow.
- Richard Tracey, Wandsworth, England
Brenda Stern is being punished as a whistle-blower for being honourable, risking her career.
Senior local government officers are largely unaccountable, in practice, and get away too often with too much. We in the UK could teach Italy's reputedly rot-riddled bureaucracies lessons, any day!
- David Hearn, Oxford
Either Ken Livingstone is lying or he's completely self-deluded about just how much power he has. The sooner he, his money-wasting policies and his band of cronies are out of City Hall the better. Andrew Gilligan and Brenda Stern should not be put off by Ken Livingstone's threat of legal action, although he is no stranger to this money-wasting course of action.
- Mr Neville, London, UK
Giving almost brown-paper-bag handouts to unqualified groups based soley on their racial affiliations and political patronage seems like something out of the dark ages...!
Read the email trail - Lee Jasper was
1. Awarded a contract for a service he has apparently no experience in, suggesting a highly questionable bidding process based on patronage and political affiliations.
2. Surprise, surprise - he does not deliver what was paid (a large sum) to deliver
3. He then puts his company into liquidation and closes the website
It sounds to me like Lee Jasper is certainly not the sort of person that GLA should have anything to do with.
QED
- Mark, London
The Mayor apparently believes that the best defence is to attack.
Let's hope the media aren't intimidated by this.
- Stan(Expat), USA
As a London local taxpayer, I have every right to demand that this matter should and must be reported to the police. These allegations must be fully investigated and if evidence is found, these officials must be charged.
- George, London, UK
Ken and Lee... this is how it all starts and then we end up like Nigeria!
- Jerome N. Keshwar, Johannesbur, South Africa
Are threats the new weapon of Ken. I thought there were laws against intimidation.
"Can I just advise you what you say doesn't land you in court." "I would hate to see you when you are miserable."
I can't step out of my flat without being monitored, can't park in central London without having to pay by phone/credit card, (charged 10p extra for the transaction please as the machine doesn't seem to accept small payment of 50p), just to learn in a few weeks time that my bank/car/name details have been lost, ...sold,...in the big financial DNA database ready to strike me back?
This is just a new step towards dictatorship, with the blessing of god of course.
Go on Gilligan, Go on Stern. You will be my first hero if this pantomime Ken falls.
- Laurent, London UK
If I read this correctly, allegations have been made of one or more criminal acts. If the London Assembly is unwilling or unable to force an independent inquiry, should the information be passed on to the Crown Prosecution Service or the Commissioner for Standards in Public Life?
- Anon, London, UK
Of course Lee Jasper would have links with all the black organisations that have received funding. How many black organisations are there that actually received funding? Obviously not that much. A man in Lee Jasper's position would probably have links with them all. Oh and well done too for not allowing that lawyer Brenda Stern to intimidate him.
- Claire Walters, London England
"When another Standard journalist asked the Mayor to respond to yesterday's article, Ms Stern, who was in the front row with Mr Gilligan, demanded that a fuller answer be given to her accusations.
When Ms Stern, who rose to her feet, continued, Mr Livingstone went on: "We are not taking this. Don't turn up with a stunt like this."
So, when confronted "Ken" just tells his accuser not to pull a stunt. An interesting way to defend yourself without putting a counter argument forward.
And if "Ken" has the gall to demand that Andrew Gilligan is sacked - which is of course an interesting way to remove 'awkward' people - whom can I turn to demanding that "Ken" is sacked?
- Robert Zimmerman, London
Mayor Livingstone in one of his very latest press statements states that Andrew Gilligan's accusations are ill-founded, unreliable and calls upon the Evening Standard editor to sack Gilligan. Is the Mayor being naive and clutching at straws which the public can easily see through? Because the Standard editor in print has already publically backed Gilligan.
- Ian Cameron., London
So what will Livingstone do about the innumerable 'directives' apparently issued by Jasper to Stern? Does he intend to rescind them all?
As to "Don't shout or try and provoke me. I would urge you to be more cautious with the wild allegations you have made", that is hugely entertaining. This is a man who has specialised in yes, shouting or provoking, when he thinks he can get away with it. Take at look at many of his (published) comments to journalists and others. Provocation? Yes, I think so.
He has 'taken legal advice', has he?
It's a totally crass political gambit. The genie is out of the bottle now and in the mind of the public there's a relationship between smoke and fire. The best thing he could have done politically was to announce an immediate independent inquiry. He hasn't even got the brains or sense to do that. Is this really the sort of man who should be Mayor of London? Surely we can do a whole lot better than this?
- Chuck Unsworth, London
NuLab sleaze at its finest! I would expect nothing less.
- Steve Goodwin, Leeds, UK
I had always assumed that Ken Livingstone was a shoo-in for London mayor, and capable of talking his way out of any hole. But now we have serious evidence (and the Standard has provided plenty of evidence in its thoroughly researched pieces) that everything political opponents suspected about Ken's cavalier attitude to book-keeping and dispersal of public funds is true.
More and more people will begin to dislike him rather intensely. (Of course all taxi drivers and true Tories already did). And while Ken has hitherto been able to be both part of Labour and apart from it (since his return to the fold after successful election as an independent) his sleaze now coincides, unfortunately for him, with the steadily progressing exposure of sleaze in Labour nationally. Labour controlled councils among the London boroughs will surely be as angry (though perhaps not as noisy) as Tories and LibDems about mis-spending of the Mayor's precepts on their council taxes. This one is no stunt, Ken. It is a long running sell-out show.
- Robin Young, London
More Labour sleaze, jobs for the boys and political correctness gone crazy. This expose of Livingstone's approach will hopefully enlighten the people of London to this Mayor's true character and see him out of office come the election.
- Bigbobjoylove, London
Keep up the good work - the Mayor can't protect Lee Jasper for ever - it is a shame that the good work he has done in the past is being polluted by this but - also there is a line, which has been crossed - and the Mayor's tone does seem to fit with the attitude at the GLA which seems to be a normal working practice amongst the mayor and his advisers.
- Jchen, London
Would the so-called government like to take an interest in how the taxpayers' money is being misused?
- Sarah N., London
