We believe it should be up to them to decide, unlike Labour who are so terrified of giving their members any choice,” a senior source said.Mr Livingstone said last night that he could not believe reports that the party was preparing to sideline him in the race to become the capital’s first directly elected mayor.”I’m convinced that this is just briefing by the same over-zealous, young party officials who are claiming they don’t want a contest in Wales and who have blocked sitting MEPs,” he said. PRESSURE ON Labour to allow Ken Livingstone to stand for Mayor of London intensified yesterday when the Tories revealed that Jeffrey Archer will be allowed to stand. The move is a setback for the Tories, who tomorrow will announce the result of their one-member, one-vote ballot of Welsh party members to choose their leader for the Assembly elections.The contest is between a former Welsh Office minister, Rod Richards, and Professor Nick Bourne, the chief spokesman for the party in Wales.. As the London Labour Party prepared to meet today to determine its selection procedure for the post, the Conservatives made clear that the millionaire novelist would not be barred.
Tory sources confirmed yesterday that the party was committed to one member, one vote for its own selection, which is likely to take place next July.Lord Archer’s critics had hoped that he would be prevented from standing after a rash of new allegations about his past this summer.However, Tory officials have decided that he will not have to appear before the party’s new ethics committee unless new evidence is brought against him.”If the members want Jeffrey, they can vote for him. He said he wanted to overhaul MP selection and give Wales a representative on the party’s ruling NEC.Anita Gale, the general secretary of the Wales Labour Party, said there was no prospect of the contest being “stitched up by London”.Labour had the welcome distraction of the defection by Stuart Andrew, a Tory Welsh Assembly candidate who claimed that his own party was riven by disunity.

The full weight of the party machine will get behind Mr Michael and Mr David is likely to stand as his deputy to avoid splitting the Blairite vote.Mr Michael attempted to win the party round yesterday with a raft of new proposals to increase the power of Welsh members over selection of their MPs and policy making. Yet Mr Michael’s backers are understood to be confident that they can clinch the contest with the help of crucial votes of trade unions, co-ops and women’s sections, MPs and MEPs. The executive, which was lobbied by noisy protests from members who fear Millbank will impose Mr Michael as sole candidate, will meet again later this week to make its final recommendations.Mr Morgan agreed to talk to the meeting, but made clear that there was no chance of him taking up the offer of joining a “unity ticket” as Mr Michael’s deputy. “I can tell you now there is more likelihood of Ian Paisley being the next Pope than of me agreeing to a fix or a stitch-up,” he warned.”An absolutely extraordinary level of support has been manifested to me in Wales.”More than 40 placard- carrying demonstrators chanted slogans outside the meeting, calling for the issue to be decided by a one-member, one-vote ballot of the 25,000 party members in the principality.Mr Morgan, Mr Michael and Wayne David, an MEP who also aims to contest the leadership, had “constructive” round-table talks and will meet again later this week. However, the party leadership has now reluctantly accepted that a contest will go ahead, probably under the same electoral college that chose Mr Davies.Mr Morgan’s campaign was boosted last week when he topped an opinion poll as the public’s choice for “Prime Minister of Wales” and was backed by a large majority of Assembly candidates. Senior party sources indicated last night that they were prepared to risk a “straight fight” between Mr Morgan and the new Welsh Secretary, Alun Michael, for the candidacy.
Although some will see the move as a huge political gamble, party officers claim they are confident that Mr Michael can win what is sure to be a divisive contest to succeed Ron Davies.The chances of a direct run-off for the post became inevitable yesterday when the Cardiff West MP told the Welsh Labour Party executive that he was not prepared to step aside.An emergency meeting of the executive in Cardiff yesterday decided to postpone making a decision on the party’s means of choosing a leader. “Tony Blair has made clear his backing for one member, one vote and it would be very damaging for him to drop that commitment.”Geoff Martin, London convenor of Unison, a union backing the former GLC leader, said that it was “outrageous” that a “trap door” was being considered to remove the MP.Leading article, Review, page 3.

A LENGTHY and bitter battle for the Labour leadership of the Welsh Assembly looked certain yesterday after the backbench MP Rhodri Morgan rejected last-minute pleas to drop out of the race. We believe it should be up to them to decide, unlike Labour who are so terrified of giving their members any choice,” a senior source said.Tory sources confirmed yesterday that the party was committed to one member, one vote for its selection, which is likely to take place next July.Mr Livingstone said last night that he could not believe reports that the party was preparing to sideline him in the race to become the capital’s first directly elected mayor.”I’m convinced that this is just briefing by the same over-zealous, young party officials who are claiming they don’t want a contest in Wales and who have blocked sitting MEPs,” he said. Critics of the millionaire novelist had hoped that he would be prevented from standing after a rash of new allegations about his past this summer. However, officials have decided that he will not have to appear before the party’s new ethics committee unless new evidence is brought against him.”If the members want Jeffrey, they can vote for him. PRESSURE ON Labour to allow Ken Livingstone to stand for Mayor of London increased yesterday when the Tories revealed that Jeffrey Archer can be a candidate.

The London Labour Partymeets today to determine its selection procedure for the post. It may back a panel that could rule out the Brent East MP.
Meanwhile the Conservatives made clear that Lord Archer would not be barred. “I am very moved and touched by their support.”Lord Wakeham, the PCC chairman, offered to launch an investigation but said he could do so only if Mr Brown requested it Allies of the minister said this was unlikely. Lord Wakeham said later there was no reason cabinet ministers should respond to The Sun’s call yesterday for them to “come out” if they were gay.David Aaronovitch, Review page 3Podium, Review page 4Media, Review page 14. He said the PCC should consider the matter.Downing Street insisted that the Government’s view on privacy issues has not changed. “We favour the self-regulatory approach,” said Mr Blair’s official spokesman, adding that he welcomed the generally sympathetic coverage of Mr Brown in yesterday’s newspapers.”You do see a reflection of what is now a greater public understanding of the difference between private lives and public office,” he said.On a visit to Devon yesterday, Mr Brown thanked cabinet and party colleagues for their “very kind” comments since he made his statement at the weekend. He added: “At the moment, sex sells newspapers and if it means breaching the code, they will breach the code.”Mr Prescott accused the press of acting as “judge, jury and executioner” over Mr Brown and said the intrusion into his private life was “quite unacceptable”.

Although he said it would be better to avoid a privacy law, Mr Soley warned that one was “beginning to look inevitable” because of the behaviour of the press.He urged the PCC to make its voluntary code work by challenging editors to justify what they were doing, or to “be honest, rip up the code and say it doesn’t work”. Mr Brown suspected the calls were being taped and were an attempt to get him talking about the relationship so his former partner could sell his story to a newspaper.Renewed calls for legislation to prevent press intrusion into people’s private lives were led by Clive Soley, chairman of the Parliamentary Labour Party, who criticised the PCC for not intervening to stop the News of the World pressurising Mr Brown. But friends of the minister were furious about a claim in The Sun yesterday that it had a tape-recording of a conversation between him and a rent boy.Mr Brown told Downing Street that a man claiming to be a friend of his former partner telephoned him several times during last year’s general election campaign, saying the press had found out about the relationship, which had already ended. “He’s determined to get on with the job that the Prime Minister has entrusted him to do and has no intention of making a complaint about the press coverage or of commenting further on his private life,” said a spokesman. TONY BLAIR rejected demands for a privacy law yesterday amid criticism that Nick Brown, the Agriculture Minister, was forced to declare he was gay to head off newspaper revelations about his private life.