Not many politicians got the better of Sir Tony Blair but Ken Livingstone has a claim. I remember one late summer’s day in 2005, travelling around Trafalgar Square in a car with Sir Tony, my then-boss and also the prime minister. Around us, people were clearing up after a festival sponsored and endorsed by Livingstone, the mayor of London. Sir Tony spoke, more to himself than to me: “Remarkable politician, Ken, amazingly creative.” Now that the sad news has come through that Livingstone is suffering from Alzheimer’s, it is time to reflect on the nature of that creativity.
In 2000, Sir Tony had blocked Livingstone from being the Labour candidate for the new post of the directly elected mayor of London, even though 60 per cent of Labour members wanted him. Livingstone, though, refused to stand down. Drawing on his singular popularity and name recognition from his days as the leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) in the Eighties, Livingstone described himself as a “London nationalist” and won as an independent. After a term in City Hall he was allowed back into the Labour fold and won a second victory, this time as a Labour candidate, in 2004.
