Growing by the day!!!
The Met has been asked by City Hall to reopen its investigation into mayoral aide Lee Jasper, it has emerged.
Scotland Yard issued a statement last week saying it had been unable to look into the "dodgy grants" controversy surrounding Mr Jasper as it had not received any allegations of criminal behaviour.
The matter had been referred to the Met by Ken Livingstone in what critics believed was an attempt to sideline the issue in the run-up to May's mayoral election.
Today Mr Livingstone said Janet Worth, the Greater London Authority's executive director of corporate services, had written to the Yard with details of nine charges of misconduct he believes have been published in the Standard, plus a further charge against Mr Jasper made by Tory group leader on the London Assembly Richard Barnes.
Mr Jasper, the Mayor's £120,000-a-year policing and equalities director, was suspended on full pay 11 days ago.
The Standard has never suggested Mr Jasper was involved in criminal activity. Mr Jasper was facing fresh claims over his conduct today as it emerged that he apparently failed to declare he was chairman of race-equality organisation Equanomics, which received £15,000 in funding from the Greater London Authority. News Source
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No end to Jasper Breaking Rules?
Suspended mayoral aide Lee Jasper was today accused of flouting City Hall rules banning senior staff from political campaigning.
Tory candidate Boris Johnson and Lib-Dem Brian Paddick warned that the adviser could be breaking the rules after an interview in which he said Ken Livingstone was "the candidate of choice" for the 1 May poll.
Mr Jasper, who continues to receive his £120,000-a-year salary,
gave an interview attacking Mr Johnson and MrPaddick, although not by name, over their lack of "substantive" policies.
The adviser, one of the Mayor's two political appointees, has been suspended while police consider whether to investigate his involvement in grants given to organisations run by his friends for which there is little or nothing to show. The move came after the Standard revealed concerns over the grants paid by the London Development Agency.
In an interview with The Voice newspaper, Mr Jasper admitted he planned to spend his suspension campaigning to get black Londoners out to vote, suggesting their support was crucial if Mr Livingstone was to be re-elected.
City Hall rules prohibit senior staff from political campaigning, even in their own time, with the apparent intention of winning support for one party.
Today, Mr Johnson said: "He has used this interview to campaign on behalf of his boss even though the rules state he is not allowed to do so. This says everything we need to know about the way the Mayor runs City Hall. Both the Mayor and his cronies have a blatant disregard for the rules."
Mr Jasper was suspended from his role as Mr Livingstone's policing and race adviser last week over the City Hall grants scandal. It follows 10 weeks of revelations over £3.3million paid by the LDA. Mr Jasper denies any wrongdoing. Continued
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Skeletons in Ken's Closet! - The Butcher of X-Block?
Ken Livingstone's past life experimenting on live animals has been detailed for the first time by two of his former colleagues who have described how he conducted tests on mice, rats, rabbits, sheep and goats.
The London mayor, known for his love of newts, spent two years helping to carry out procedures on animals at a laboratory in Sutton, south London.
Livingstone was responsible for cultivating tumours in the smaller rodents by injecting them with cancer cells or car-cinogenic substances. Sheep were also given cancer in order to study their lymphatic systems.
All the animals were then either given experimental treatments to fight cancer or simply observed to see how their own immune systems attempted to combat the disease.
Among other experiments carried out at X block was a test in which researchers crushed or amputated the legs of mice to see how it caused tumours to spread.
Dr Chris Grant, who was researching his doctorate at the centre at the time, said Livingstone worked as an assistant to him and other researchers and added that he was “a confident animal technician” who enjoyed his job. Continued
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Or' if you can't stand the heat - Get out of the kitchen Ken
...resign now and take your cohorts with you!!!
There were chaotic goings-on at the Mayoral Palace of Varieties, where Ken Livingstone was forced to suspend one of his closest aides last week.
Even before the departure of Lee Jasper, his controversial head of equality, the mayor threw such a wobbly that a session of the London Assembly had to be suspended.
Mr Livingstone lost his rag as members asked him about claims relating to Mr Jasper of irregularities in the funding of black organisations. The mayor regards such scrutiny as nothing less than a vendetta.
"When someone asked about Jasper, Livingstone just lost it," said one member present. "He started shouting: 'He's upstairs! He's upstairs! Why are you waiting to question him in March? Call him down now, go and get him!"
Baroness Hamwee, the Liberal Democrat chairman of the Assembly, urged the mayor to calm down and show some respect. Undeterred, Mr Livingstone shouted back at her: "Respect? You have to earn respect."
"In any other world, what he did would be seen as showing contempt for an elected institution," said our source. "But in the wacky world of London politics, where Ken is king, no one batted an eyelid." News Source
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After weeks of mounting pressure Ken Livingstone has finally decided to suspend Lee Jasper – his black adviser on ‘equality’ and policing issues.
Lee Jasper has been at the centre of accusations that millions of pounds of public money has been directed to black organisations – many linked to Lee Jasper himself – and that much of this has gone missing or been unaccounted for.
Like typical politicians, Livingstone and Jasper are now claiming to be calling for a police enquiry themselves, which the say will ‘exonerate’ Jasper. This conveniently ignores the fact that Richard Barnbrook – the BNP’s candidate for London Mayor – was the one who went to Scotland Yard weeks ago and demanded a police investigation!
Yes, a police investigation WILL be held, thanks to the BNP. Livingstone and Jasper – and the biased media - are desperate to deny the BNP’s role in campaigning against this scandal.
But the increasing numbers of ordinary Londoners who visit the BNP’s websites will know the truth: the BNP is the only party fighting for their interests.
The questions over how the money given to these black organisations has been spent, or where it has disappeared to, should not however be allowed to obscure the fact that it is wrong for ANY public money to be given to organisations which are targeted at the non-indigenous community. More: here News Source
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Disclaimer: This article has been duplicated in its entirety to serve as public information
Whatever your political affiliation: LET THE TRUTH BE KNOWN! (Ed)
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Livingstone squirms, but he gave the money to Jasper!
Livingstone called in the police today to investigate Lee Jasper, in an attempt to stop the City Hall grants scandal destroying his re-election bid.
Mr Jasper was suspended immediately, under City Hall rules, from his post as the Mayor's equalities and policing director. He will continue to receive his £120,000-a-year salary.
It follows ten weeks of revelations in the Evening Standard over £3.3million paid by the Mayor's London Development Agency to organisations linked to Mr Jasper or his associates.
Despite Mr Livingstone's claims of a "full audit trail", an inquiry by the agency found large amounts of cash could not be accounted for, or had resulted in poor value for money for taxpayers.
Six organisations funded by the agency are already being investigated by the police for suspected fraud. Two addresses, in Clapham and Deptford, have been raided, but no arrests have been made.
Mr Livingstone admitted the decision to suspend Mr Jasper had been driven by his fear of losing to Tory rival Boris Johnson, whom he described as "formidable" and able to attract the "Big Brother" generation of voters.
Mr Livingstone said: "Last week, Lee came to me and said, 'Look, I can't do my job. This dominates everything. I'm dealing with people and they don't know whether this is true or not.'"
But the Mayor's critics accused him of mounting a stunt and "wasting police time" so he can divert questions about Mr Jasper in the run-up to the 1 May poll.
City Hall insiders said the Mayor had decided to "cut Mr Jasper loose", and speculated that more damaging allegations about misuse of public money may have been brought to Mr Livingstone's attention.
But there was also the belief that Mr Livingstone was trying to portray himself as a "victim", and aimed to make police investigate criminal allegations that have never been made against Mr Jasper - so he can claim victory if the police find no crime has been committed.
"Only 12 hours ago, the Mayor stood by Lee Jasper and said, 'I have full confidence.' What could have changed his mind since then?
"This looks like a deliberate attempt to bury this investigation until the election. Today's announcement provides further evidence that Mayor Livingstone's City Hall is mired in maladministration." Continued
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One of Ken Livingstone's closest aides has been suspended while he attempts to clear his name over allegations of missing public funds.
Lee Jasper, the Mayor's adviser on equality, has been at the centre of an extraordinary storm over alleged funding irregularities at community projects.
The Evening Standard has claimed hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money that went to community projects linked with Mr Jasper hasn't been properly accounted for.
Mr Jasper has strongly denied any wrongdoing, and an internal review by the London Development Authority (LDA) cleared him last month. But members of the London Assembly have since called for an independent inquiry, and the LDA is still investigating the funding of 13 projects.
The mayor has now called on the Evening Standard to "put up or shut up" by handing its evidence to the police. Continued
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Livingstone's cry of Desperation!
Livingstone, the mayor of London, was criticised yesterday for describing corruption allegations over missing grants worth many thousands of pounds as a "racist smear campaign".
The row centres on the Mayor's race adviser, Lee Jasper, and alleged financial irregularities at City Hall. Boris Johnson, his Conservative rival, and Brian Paddick, the Liberal Democrat also seeking to unseat him as mayor, both accused Mr Livingstone of creating a "smokescreen" as he fights for his political life ahead of polling day in May.
Mr Livingstone made his racism claim as he was questioned by London assembly members over his defence of Mr Jasper. The adviser is under pressure amid claims that ethnic minority community projects apparently linked to him received 12 grants totalling as much as £3.5 million.
An internal inquiry cleared Mr Jasper of wrongdoing last month, but members of the assembly have called for an independent investigation. Continued
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Lee Jasper's position has been described as "untenable" by all three opposition parties as damaging emails revealed the extent of his involvement in the City Hall scandal.
The internal London Development Agency emails were released to the London Assembly as it investigates the LDA's funding of 13 suspect projects run by Mr Jasper - Mayor Ken Livingstone's race adviser - or his friends.
The Assembly inquiry was triggered after the Standard identified a number of projects run by friends of Mr Jasper which have been paid at least £3.3 million by City Hall but have produced little, if anything, to show for it.
Assembly members were questioning Mr Livingstone and senior officials of the LDA over the funding scandal today at a special session. Emails released to assembly members show that:
- LDA officials did not want to fund many of the projects but were pressured into doing so by Mr Jasper.
- Mr Jasper repeatedly pestered the LDA to provide more and more funding and prevented it from acting against one project even when it acted "illegally", according to one email.
- Hundreds of thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money was paid to the projects without any paperwork to show what it was for.
- At least £137,000 was paid without even an LDA sign-off.
- A £300,000 contract was awarded to one of Mr Jasper's friends without the normal tender process or competition.
- LDA officers said that one of their board members, whose organisations received more than £1 million from the agency, had "a conflict of pecuniary interest" and may have breached its code of conduct.
The emails contradict claims by Mr Jasper that he did "not get involved" in funding decisions for the projects or have any "day-to-day involvement" with them. They also contradict a claim by Mr Livingstone that there was a "full audit trail" for all the suspect projects. Continued - Please Read News in Full
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Dozens of apparently independent people or organisations which have praised Ken Livingstone or attacked Boris Johnson have received large sums of taxpayers' money from City Hall, a Standard investigation has revealed.
Those paid include newspapers, individual journalists, pressure groups and companies.
The revelations, condemned by the London MP Greg Hands as a "disgrace", come as the Electoral Commission launches an investigation into earlier claims that Mr Livingstone used taxpayer-funded officials for party political campaigning.
The first major attack on Mr Johnson during the campaign came from Doreen Lawrence, mother of the murdered teenager Stephen, who told The Guardian newspaper that he would "destroy the city's [multicultural] unity".
Ms Lawrence did not declare that her organisation, the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, has received at least
£1.9 million from Mr Livingstone's London Development Agency to build a new headquarters in south-east London. The trust did not reply to inquiries by the Standard.
The following month, Mr Johnson was attacked, also in The Guardian, by John Sauven, director of Greenpeace, who accused him of "diplodocus rhetoric" and of "disappearing under the rising tide of environmental awareness".
Mr Sauven contrasted this with the "boldness" of Mr Livingstone, whose congestion charge, he claimed, "has delivered cuts in both pollution and congestion levels". In fact, after initially falling, both pollution and congestion have returned to their previous levels. Continued - Please Read News in Full
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Police have launched an inquiry into a sixth City Hall-funded project closely linked to the Mayor's race adviser, Lee Jasper.
Fraud officers are to investigate Brixton Base, an arts training hub, which received more than £500,000 from MrLivingstone's London Development Agency but ran only three short training courses in two years.
Scotland Yard was called in on Brixton Base after LDA auditors found at least £70,000 of the money they paid the project could not be accounted for.
Mr Jasper is patron of Brixton Base and the organisation's director, Errol Walters, is a close friend. Emails obtained by the Evening Standard show that Mr Jasper repeatedly intervened to protect Brixton Base from LDA officials who had severe doubts about the project and wanted to evict it.
The LDA said: "The LDA funded Brixton Base £535,262 between 2005 and 2007 to build its capacity as a grassroots delivery organisation and deliver employment support and skills training to vulnerable groups.
"The auditor confirms that expenditure of £464,144 is supported in their analysis. The LDA has to determine whether the gap in the accounts relates to inadequate book- or record-keeping or other possible issues.
"As the LDA does not possess the necessary legal powers to investigate such issues (eg right to seize bank accounts, documents, etc) it has decided to refer the whole case to the police."
The Scotland Yard inquiry is a further serious embarrassment for Mr Livingstone. When questions were first raised about Brixton Base - by the Standard last December - the Mayor claimed there was a "full audit trail" for the project with "complete chapter and verse on how the money's been spent". Continued - Please Read News in Full
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Ken Livingstone's senior race advisor, Lee Jasper, admitted today that £18,000 of City Hall money was improperly diverted to bail out a private company of which he is a director.
But Mr Jasper has insisted he had known nothing of the payment. A Scotland Yard inquiry has now begun to determine whether Mr Jasper's denial is true.
The inquiry, into a project known as Ethnic Mutual, is the fifth separate police investigation to be launched into a City Hall project in as many weeks, but is the most dangerous so far for Mr Jasper.
Officers last week raided the Deptford offices of Ethnic Mutual, which has received more than £1million from the Mayor's London Development Agency and the Government.
Police also executed a search warrant at the Brockley home of Titus Boye-Thompson, Ethnic Mutual's secretary. It is not known whether Mr Jasper has been questioned.
Mr Jasper admitted today that the £18,000 of taxpayers' money was diverted from Ethnic Mutual to a private company, African Caribbean Positive Image Foundation, of which he is company secretary. Continued
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The Metropolitan Police has launched a fresh investigation into possible fraud involving hundreds of thousands of pounds handed to an organisation funded by the Mayor of London's offices, the IoS can reveal.
The inquiry follows a series of allegations made in recent weeks against the London Development Agency (LDA) and the Greater London Authority (GLA) of financial mismanagement.
Ethnic Mutual – a fund set up to offer business support and loans to the "financially excluded" – was given £350,000 by the GLA last year. It is the fifth organisation funded by the LDA or GLA to fall under suspicion, joining four others already being investigated by fraud squad detectives. The four are the European Federation of Black Women Business Owners; the Deshbangla Foundation; Diversity International; and the South London Green Badge Taxi School.
The Financial Services Authority is said to be preparing to remove Ethnic Mutual from its register. Maxine James, a former member of Ethnic Mutual's trustee board, said: "I did receive a letter from the FSA this week saying they were thinking of striking them off or something like that."
Ms James said that she had resigned her position last year. This latest revelation has come as a shock to the London Assembly's audit committee. "This [Ethnic Mutual] is a completely new name on me. Continued
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Kate Hoey, the Labour MP for Vauxhall, warned the party was being damaged by the Left-winger, who gave an interview denying allegations of cronyism and laughing off his drinking habits.
She said: "If more and more allegations about the way in which the system is being abused come out, then this could be very damaging for Labour. Gordon Brown… needs to put some distance between the Government and Ken."
Livingstone mounted a staunch defence of his personal style, saying he was within his rights to ask staff to make personal attacks on his rivals but insisted they did so in their spare time.
Mr Livingstone has been at the centre of a storm over claims his race relations adviser channelled millions of pounds in grants to groups and failed businesses to support ethnic minority communities. Continued
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Ken Livingstone is facing an official investigation for alleged misuse of public funds after giving left-wing campaigners free use of London's City Hall at a cost of £50,000 to taxpayers.
The London mayor waived the normal hire charges for the building to enable the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) to stage two weekend conferences. He is himself a member of the antinuclear group.
The Tories and Liberal Democrats said this weekend they would be lodging official complaints with the district auditor for misuse of public funds and a “shocking” conflict of interest.
Livingstone is already embroiled in controversy over organisations championed by two of his aides that received grants for which there was little or no evidence of the money being used. Police and the district auditor are investigating.
Details of the CND events, billed as the group’s annual meetings, have revived memories of Livingstone’s management of the Greater London Council, which during the 1980s was famed for it links with CND and championed the capital as a “nuclear-free city”.
In a two-day conference last October up to 200 CND delegates took part in plenary sessions in the assembly chamber and enjoyed “live music and drink” in the London Living Room - the building’s top-floor venue which costs £6,268 to hire for a Saturday night.
According to its agenda, the event opened with a “welcome from the mayor”. Taxpayers funded a similar conference in 2004 set up by Redmond O’Neill, the mayor’s policy director who is also a CND member. Continued
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Livingstone has admitted he has suffered the "worst week" of his mayoral term after being battered by a string of sleaze allegations.
The Mayor made the admission as he gave his backing to Lee Jasper, the aide who is at the centre of the storm.
Mr Livingstone said he would trust Mr Jasper "with his life" despite the series of allegations that have engulfed his embattled equalities and policing adviser.
The allegations centre on cash granted by the Mayor's London Development Agency to a string of organisations run by friends or associates of Mr Jasper, largely without any results to show for the money spent.
A police investigation into what happened to cash at four of the companies is now under way and there are calls from a cross-party group of MPs for a full inquiry into the affair. Continued
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With her beguiling smile and dazzling African dress Rosemary Emodi always appeared to be one of the more attractive members of Ken Livingstone's inner sanctum.
Her eloquence and frequent appeals on equality issues endeared her to minority group campaigners. But now that she has been forced to leave City Hall after admitting she lied over a free holiday many will feel they have lost an ally.
But how true a friend was Ms Emodi? The fact that her hosts at a five star resort in Nigeria apparently believed that she and her companion were on an official mission for the GLA to investigate funding visits for London youngsters with African roots will dismay many of those who might have instinctively supported her.
GLA officials said they knew nothing about her trip and at one point denied she had even made it after believing her assurances.
To accept hospitality on the mendacious premise that she was exploring future help for black kids smacks of exploiting the very inequalities she was paid £64,000 a year to address.
Many will wonder whether this was an isolated lapse. The answer, from inside the community she has always claimed to champion, is intriguing. An Evening Standard investigation into Rosemary Emodi's career reveals a number of allegations and unanswered questions.
- A mysterious firm paid £150,000 by the Mayor shared the same registered office as her private company.
- She was told to re-read the rules after allegations of mixing personal business with her City Hall job.
- She has angered London's black community with support for a campaign to discredit Trevor Phillips.
- Prominent figures in business and fashion accuse her of mishandling deals.
Ms Emodi's departure from City Hall was swift but her presence may yet be felt.
She has been with Ken every step of the way and her actions may yet come back to haunt him. In 2006 he authorised a £150,000 payment to a company to stage a rival carnival which the stalwarts of Notting Hill claim was a spiteful attempt to undermine their own world-famous event. Continued - Please Read News in Full
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A senior aide to Ken Livingstone has resigned after she lied about accepting a free luxury holiday.
Rosemary Emodi is deputy to the London Mayor's chief race adviser Lee Jasper, who is himself being investigated over claims of improper behaviour.
Miss Emodi had initially denied that she spent a weekend at a £200-a-night beach resort in Nigeria as a guest of youth camp organisation Kamp Afrika.
The Greater London Authority also issued a statement last week saying that she was in London on the dates concerned. It called the claims "totally inaccurate, false and invented".
However, Miss Emodi was presented with evidence on Tuesday that she had indeed flown to the capital, Lagos, with the airline Virgin Nigeria. She quit her £64,000-a-year post immediately.
Questions are now being asked over why she and the GLA gave false statements. The claims over Miss Emodi are the latest in a string of allegations against the Mayor and his staff.
The Metropolitan Police are currently investigating four projects at the London Development Agency, which is the mayor's business arm.
It is alleged that LDA contracts and funding worth more than £3million were awarded to organisations with personal links to Mr Jasper - organisations which appear to have done little, if anything, in return for the money.
A report by Channel 4's Dispatches programme also accused Mr Livingstone of cronyism and drinking alcohol at public meetings. There are also claims his aides ran a taxpayer-funded smear campaign against equality chief Trevor Phillips. Continued - Please Read News in Full
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Lee Jasper, the senior Ken Livingstone aide currently under investigation by the GLA, lives in state-subsidised social housing, despite earning £117,000 a year, the Standard has learned.
Mr Jasper, the Mayor's director of equalities and policing, pays around £90 a week - a sixth of the market rent - for his three-storey, four-bedroom Victorian terraced house on a quiet side street in Clapham. It is a housing association property, the modern-day equivalent of the council house, although not a typical one.
It is period, rather than post-War, it is not on an estate, and it has a 60ft back garden. The house is in council tax band F, putting it in the top 12 per cent of all properties in its borough, Lambeth.
A similar private house in the area, moments from the fashionable bars and shops of Clapham Road and about 10 minutes' walk from the Common, would cost at least £750,000 and rent for around £550 a week. A one-bedroom flat in the same street is currently on sale for £320,000.
London Assembly members reacted with amazement last night to the news that Mr Jasper, on a salary of £2,250 a week, is occupying a property intended for a low-income family. "The Mayor is always talking about providing affordable housing, but I didn't realise he meant for his own advisers," said the Tory assembly member, Richard Barnes. "Mr Jasper speaks a lot about helping the needy, but by his presence in this house he is depriving a needy family of a home." Continued
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Ken Livingstone is embroiled in fresh controversy after allegations that his most senior aides have been members of a Trotskyite faction that plotted to turn London into a “socialist city state”.
The advisers, who include the mayor’s chief of staff and his principal economic adviser, have refused to say whether they remain members of the secretive group Socialist Action, whose members greet each other using codenames.
Livingstone also faced claims that his aides breached the Greater London Authority’s codes of conduct by engaging in election fundraising while continuing to draw public salaries.
The allegations of Marxist infiltration at City Hall will embarrass Livingstone as he begins his campaign for a third term, running on a moderate, pro-business platform.
He faces challenges from Boris Johnson, the Tory candidate, and Brian Paddick, the Liberal Democrat contender, in the May election.
The hidden lives of the mayor’s aides are revealed by Atma Singh, who until recently was the mayor’s senior adviser on Asian issues.
Singh claims Simon Fletcher, Livingstone’s £100,000-a-year chief of staff, John Ross, the economic adviser, and Redmond O’Neill, the deputy chief of staff, as well as Mark Watts, the green adviser, and Jude Woodward, the culture adviser, were all members of Socialist Action. Continued - Please Read News in Full
In Reverse Chronological order the Scandals!
- Mayor 'misleading public' over report on City Hall scandal. Ken Livingstone has been accused of "misleading the public" about an inquiry he claims will vindicate him and his senior aide, Lee Jasper, over the City Hall scandal. The London Development Agency inquiry was launched following the Evening Standard's revelations that 12 projects linked to Mr Jasper, his friends or business associates have received at least £2.8million from City Hall, yet appear to have done little or nothing with the money. Continued
- Project linked to Mayor aide sued by LDA. A project closely linked to Ken Livingstone's aide Lee Jasper is being sued by the Mayor's London Development Agency. The LDA is taking legal action against Brixton Base - of which Mr Jasper is patron and self-styled "champion" - over £18,000 in unpaid rent. The sum is being demanded back from the south London organisation despite it receiving a £287,000 grant towards "premises" from the LDA. Continued
- Ken and lost £500,000: The inquiry begins. An inquiry is being carried out into £500,000 of public funds given to a community group with close links to one of Ken Livingstone's top advisers. The Mayor revealed that the London Development Agency, which awarded the money to the Brixton Base project, is conducting an "audit" to check the sums were spent properly. This follows a series of articles in the Standard that have questioned mayoral aide Lee Jasper's role in at least £2.5 million of LDA grants. Continued
- A vibrant hub for 'criminals' and race adviser's cronies. Creativity is certainly involved at Brixton Base, but not in quite the way the Mayor might hope. The project, in Offley Road, Kennington, has become a giant siphon of City Hall cash into questionable pockets, and an object of serious concern to its local community. Continued
- Neither Ken nor the LDA has been able to answer a single one of our questions. On Thursday 29 November, the Standard submitted a list of detailed questions to the London Development Agency and, the next day, to the Mayor about a number of grants which have been causing deep concern to some of its officials. In total, more than £2.5 million has been paid by City Hall to organisations run by friends or business associates of the Mayor's adviser, Lee Jasper - with very little indeed, and sometimes nothing at all that we can trace, to show for it. Continued
- Ken confronted over grant scandal. 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. Continued
- Emails 'bring cover-up right to Mayor's feet'. The chief executive of the London Development Agency expressed "the deepest possible concern" over a six-figure grant paid to a friend of Lee Jasper, Mayor Ken Livingstone's senior aide. A series of leaked emails show that LDA boss Manny Lewis wanted to sack Joel O'Loughlin, claw back the money, and even raised the possibility of suing him. But after Mr O'Loughlin approached his friend, Mr Jasper, the LDA not only withdrew all these threats - but agreed to give him a further £250,0000 and a lucrative consultancy. Continued
- New embarrassment for Mayor over denials. A "schedule of allegations" published separately from the main LDA review includes new information about Diversity International and Brixton Base. It leaves Ken Livingstone and the LDA deeply embarrassed by their denials about the projects. On Diversity International, run by a close friend of Lee Jasper, Joel O'Loughlin, the Mayor accused the Standard of "distortion and manipulation" for reporting that the LDA offered Mr O'Loughlin £250,000 and a consultancy in spite of a record of irregularities. But the schedule states "an in-principle agreement was reached for the LDA to pay Diversity International £250,000 and a £35,000 per annum consultancy". Continued
- 'The Mayor is denying the truth'. A former senior manager at Ken Livingstone's London Development Agency has dramatically broken her silence to reveal what she describes as demands for hush money, political interference and financial irregularity that dogged one of the Mayor's flagship programmes. Brenda Stern, programme manager for the LDA's Diversity Works initiative, was forced out of her £75,000 job after resisting attempts to funnel £250,000 in LDA money to a personal friend of the Mayor's senior aide, Lee Jasper, despite a record of deceit and non-delivery. Continued
- Secret emails expose Mayor aide scandal. Ken Livingstone faces mounting questions as the City Hall grants scandal deepened. Leaked emails show that the chief executive of his London Development Agency expressed "the deepest possible concern" about a £345,000 grant to a close friend of the Mayor's senior aide, Lee Jasper. The emails - obtained by the Standard - show that Mr Jasper's friend, Joel O'Loughlin, grossly overcharged, deceived the LDA and failed to provide any of the services he promised. Continued
To Read The Original Emails, Click On The Links Below:
- Ken's aide and lost millions. A senior adviser to the Mayor, Ken Livingstone, is under GLA investigation after at least £2.5 million in City Hall money was channelled to organisations controlled by himself, his friends and his business associates. Lee Jasper, the Mayor's director of equalities and policing, is at the centre of a network of companies which have received large sums of public money from Mr Livingstone while appearing to do little or no work in return. An Evening Standard investigation has found • Hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money paid to the companies is unaccounted for or has disappeared. Up to £295,000 is the subject of possible legal action. Some of the companies are dormant or have gone out of business. Continued
You can watch the 'Dispatches Court of Ken' again or if you had not seen it before on the video carousel (at the top) which will take you to YouTube. (Ed)
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Panic sets in' nearing elections as popularity dwindles!
Ken Livingstone has complained to the media watchdog Ofcom about an "explosive" TV documentary rumored to focus on his drinking.
The Dispatches programme, due to be broadcast by Channel 4 on Monday evening, is also understood to make claims about his senior aides - whose salaries are paid by London taxpayers - exceeding their powers.
Today the Mayor revealed he had complained to Ofcom, suggesting it was unfair for a broadcaster to target just one Mayoral candidate so close to May's election. Continued
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