Senior aide Lee Jasper initiated a smear campaign against Trevor Phillips to stop him becoming head of the new Equalities superwatchdog, Dispatches claims.

Mr Livingstone had an acrimonious relationship with Mr Phillips who was Labour chairman of the London Assembly in the Mayor's first term from 2000 to 2004.

Dispatches claims it was Mr Jasper's job to discredit Mr Phillips, before he was appointed to head the new Equalities and Human Rights Commission in 2006.

The Mayor's adviser on equalities and policing allegedly recruited Anne Kane, a long time associate of the Mayor and former member of Socialist Action, to conduct negative research on Mr Phillips.

Dispatches claims she received £14,400 of taxpayers' money and that her work was signed off by the Mayor himself.

In June 2006, Mr Jasper sent her an email asking her to draft an article outlining his opposition to Mr Phillips, who was then head of the Commission for Racial Equality. She later reported back to Mr Jasper that Mr Phillips was "rattled" by one article.

Eight days earlier, the Mayor's aide reportedly wrote to a different colleague "we should develop a devastating critique of TP tenure at CRE" and said that if Mr Phillips took charge it would be like "taking control of a train that is destined to crash or becoming captain of the Titanic".

Later that year, Mr Phillips got the job and remains in the post.

Dame Judith Mayhew Jonas, a former leader of the City of London Corporation and one-time Mayoral aide, suggested Mr Livingstone should apologise. She said: "I would be shocked if I thought people actually spent public money to discredit someone as good as Trevor."

Suresh Grover, head of the anti-racist Monitoring Group, said: "I don't think the Mayor's office should be involved in discrediting individuals, never mind using the public purse."

A spokeswoman for the Equality and Human Rights Commission said: "Channel 4 has made a series of serious allegations against both Lee Jasper and the Mayor's office. The operation of the London Mayor's office is a matter in the first instance for the Mayor and the London Assembly, not for Trevor. We are sure they will be responding in due course."

Mr Livingstone's spokeswoman did not address the allegations directly but said the programme was "a smear campaign".

Mr Jasper is already facing questions over his role in grants given by the Mayor's London Development Agency to a string of companies linked to his associates.

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