Ken Livingstone: A politician charging towards his day of reckoning

London is choked with wheeled traffic, its residents upset at a network of turnpikes and the high fees charged for using them. People look to their Mayor for a solution, but find only "a vain, prating, bragging bufflehead... a coxcomb". The Mayor's tenure does not last. As a keen student of history, Ken Livingstone would appreciate the predicament of Sir John Robinson, who held the office of Lord Mayor of London in 1662 and 1663.

With his own congestion charge due to be launched in February, Mr Livingstone knows that there are plenty of modern-day critics ready to echo Samuel Pepys's scathing assessment of the capital's first citizen. "Bufflehead" and "coxcomb" (an "arrogant jester", according to the OED) will certainly not be words used by angry cabbies, van drivers and other motorists if his great scheme to charge £5 a day to enter the centre of the city results in yet more gridlock.

Mr Livingstone may be just getting used to his new role as a father at the ripe old age of 57 (baby Thomas weighed in at 6lb 8oz before Christmas and is already using environmentally friendly nappies), but it could well be the congestion charge that gives him sleepless nights. If the plan works, traffic will be cut by 15 per cent, millions will be raised for better public transport and the city can start to recover some of the £4bn a year lost through congestion.

But if it fails, it won't just be the idea of road pricing and tolls that will be set back substantially. As the Mayor himself admits, if he gets it wrong, he will be out of office at the next election in 2004. Having lost a job he feels he was born for, Mr Livingstone will be the political failure his enemies have always predicted. With transport experts from across the globe coming to inspect the scheme from 17 February, it is not an exaggeration to say that the eyes of the world will be on the Mayor.

But then being in the limelight has never been much of a problem for Kenneth Robert Livingstone, the boy from Tulse Hill council estate in south London who went on to take on prime ministers, both Tory and Labour. The son of Bob, a seaman, and Ethel, a cinema usherette, he failed the 11-plus but developed his lifelong passion for politics and newts at his local comprehensive. He left school at 17 with four O-levels to take a job as a lab technician. After eight years, he quit to enrol on a three-year teacher-training course, where he met his future wife,Christine. He never took up a teaching post, preferring instead to concentrate on his burgeoning political career.

He was elected both to Lambeth Council and the GLC by the age of 28, and a dizzying ascent up the greasy pole of Labour machine politics followed. It was in May 1981 that he hit the national consciousness, executing a ruthless coup within the Labour group to become leader of the GLC. His supporters say that his backing for ethnic minorities, gay groups and Sinn Fein proved that he was ahead of his time. His critics point to the gesture politics of turning down an invitation to the royal wedding and other stunts that effectively made County Hall a prime target for Margaret Thatcher.

He finally entered Parliament in 1987, a year after the GLC was abolished, but kept a low profile until Tony Blair failed to find an early candidate for the new directly elected post of Mayor of London. After losing the Labour candidacy to Frank Dobson, he went back on his word and stood as an independent. He won with 39 per cent of the vote in May 2000.

On the morning of that famous victory, Livingstone was at his best, declaring in his speech: "As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted..." Red Ken had become Cuddly Ken and was now Citizen Ken. But the travails of office have not been at all smooth, and his enemies are beginning to say: "We told you so, the man's a charlatan."

Mr Livingstone's current mayoral team is fiercely loyal, and features many allies from the past. But one charge that dogs him is that he betrays his colleagues with a cynical and ruthless opportunism. "Ken is only interested in Ken," John Prescott once said. From Tony Banks, once a close friend, to Andrew Macintosh, the man he deposed at the GLC, the claim is that the cheeky chappy persona hides a cold, selfish character.

Despite his Dave Spart image, to understand Ken Livingstone, labels of left and right seem somehow inadequate. Not having had the privilege of going to university, like many self-educated men he is a voracious and eclectic reader, picking up ideas like a jackdaw from everything from management guidebooks to histories of the Middle East.

In many ways it seems that his defining characteristic is that of a classic 1950s nostalgic, his politics driven by his childhood growing up in post-war south London. The garden-city new towns, burgeoning welfare state and other public works of the era all influenced him. He frequently cites the smogs of the time as he outlines plans to cut present-day pollution. More importantly, his vision of progress involves grand municipal schemes, be it the congestion charge or a planned Thames road bridge or Crossrail.

The Livingstone approach is also laced with a penchant for Fifties-style sci-fi, a belief that modernity can be allied to the public good. His fondness for skyscrapers underlines this, preferring the jobs that come with the buildings over the worries about protecting the historic skyline. The London Olympic bid for 2012, a new mini-city on the Thames estuary and even a new aquarium are all eagerly backed as a means of literally building your way to social progress. His £100bn London Plan promised 600,000 new jobs, 23,000 new homes and 130 new schools in the next 15 years.

Yet on a personal level, Mr Livingstone remains much of a mystery. Neither his first wife Christine, whom he divorced in 1982, nor Kate Allen, his partner until 2001, have revealed any details. His new partner, Emma Beal, guards her privacy as jealously as he does. Early on in his mayoralty, Mr Livingstone tried to build a cross-party coalition in the London Assembly, but the grumbles got louder and louder, with critics claiming that he was effectively invisible for most of the time.

As the long-running row over the public/private partnership for the Tube dragged on, it became clear that the Mayor had no control over the single most important public policy in London. He effectively admits he is impotent on the Underground, but points to a huge increase in bus usage thanks to fares cuts and new bus lanes. His "newt Labour" having been feted as a great alternative to New Labour, Mr Livingstone appears to have slowly but surely lost the confidence of those very middle classes whose dinner parties once trilled their support for him.

Women travelling at night were furious at his huge increase in taxi fares, a rate that charges 10p every 10 seconds after 8pm. In what his enemies say was a classic Livingstonian failure to understand the free market, there are more cabs around but fewer people wanting to use them. The cost of Ken is going up too. If his latest budget proposals were to get the go-ahead, the "precept" part of the council tax paid by all Londoners would have risen by more than £100 a year, a 95 per cent increase since 2000. This, the Tories point out, is bigger than any GLC rate rise he introduced.

More than anything, perhaps, the apparent gridlock of the city's streets has been the source of most discontent. Travelling by car anywhere in zone one or two is normally like playing a bizarre video game, with roadworks and red traffic lights trapping motorists for what seems like hours in interminable one-way systems. The Mayor's defenders say he inherited the schemes that have caused most disruption, the works at Vauxhall Cross, Trafalgar Square and Shoreditch High Street. Nevertheless, only a few weeks ago, Derek Turner, his traffic chief, was hauled into Downing Street and carpeted for a five-hour delay suffered by David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, at Vauxhall one day.

Conventional wisdom among Londoners now is that the roadworks and the longer red-light times have been deliberately timed to end just before the congestion charge comes in. According to this plan, dubbed "urban myth" by Livingstone's advisers, the roads will miraculously clear to make the charge look better.

In a photocall that attracted zero media coverage, Mr Livingstone did indeed turn the red light times at Trafalgar Square back to normal on 23 December to mark the end of the roadworks. Shoreditch High Street is now two-way and working well, while Vauxhall Cross should be finished next month. But suspicions are certain to continue, not least because Transport for London has now ordered all roadworks to stop for eight weeks from 1 February to "ease the introduction" of the congestion charge.

Curiously, given all the predictions by Tony Blair that a Livingstone Mayoralty would lead to anarchy, he has become the Met's best friend. Thousands more police are now on the streets thanks to his budgets and he is on course to hit the 35,000 officers Sir John Stevens says he needs to "reclaim the streets". But despite his own claims, as a consummate political operator he is now aware that he faces a rough ride at the mayoral election.

A recent poll in the Evening Standard caused much disquiet at City Hall. It put Mr Livingstone on 33 per cent, Steve Norris, his previous Tory rival, on 27 per cent, and Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat, on 24 per cent. If Mr Hughes's supporters could be persuaded to vote for Mr Norris, the Mayor would lose in 2004. And these figures are before C-Day, as the congestion charge start-date is known.

The only glimmer of optimism came when the same poll showed a majority of Londoners supported the charge, with 48 per cent in favour to 39 opposed. Mr Livingstone's critics claim that a classic example of his failure to manage the city's needs is the lack of a New Year fireworks display. But while there will be no explosions above the city on 31 December, the congestion charge may well ensure that political fireworks in London are feature of the coming year.

LIFE STORY

Born

17 June 1945. Son of Robert Moffat Livingstone, a merchant seaman who became a window cleaner, and Ethel Ada Livingstone, an acrobatic dancer and cinema usherette.

Family

Marriage to Christine Pamela Chapman in 1973 was dissolved in 1982; recently had a baby daughter, with his partner Emma.

Education

Tulse Hill Comprehensive, south London.

Before politics

Technician at the Chester Beatty Cancer research Institute, 1962-70.

Political career

Joined the Labour Party in 1969. Member of London Labour Party's regional executive, 1974-86; Lambeth councillor 1971-78; Camden councillor 1978-82; Greater London councillor 1973-86; GLC leader 1981-86 (where he went on stage as Dick Whittington, left); MP for Brent East 1987-2001; expelled from the Labour Party and elected Mayor of London in 2000.

Publications

If Voting Changed Anything They'd Abolish It, 1987; Livingstone's Labour, 1989.

Hobbies

Cinema, science fiction, gardening, natural history.

He says

"If I believed I was the sort of person I read about in the press, I wouldn't vote for me".

They say

"The one thing you can be certain of is that if it's in Ken's interest, he'll do it. If the result isn't what Ken wants then he'll turn over everyone and everything" – Tony Banks, MP and former political ally.

"The most odious man in Britain" – The Sun.