Late-payer Livingstone 'owes £11,000 in unpaid taxes'

Ken Livingstone's company has two outstanding legal judgments against it for non-payment of tax, court officials confirmed last night.

However, Mr Livingstone denied owing any money. Corporation tax had been outstanding several years ago, but his payments were now up to date, he said. The independent mayoral candidate was reprimanded by the MPs' disciplinary committee this week for failing to declare earnings of £158,000 which he put through the company, Localaction.

Officials at Brighton county court, in East Sussex, said two judgments were made in April 1996 and July 1997 for a total of £11,423 and had not been lifted. The court service said that meant that all or part of the money remained outstanding.

But the Brent East MP said: "If you are late paying tax, which I have often been, they issue some horrendous, grossly inflated figure and then you pay what you really owe. This is something my accountant handles. I have no recollection of it at all, but I know I don't owe anything before the current year."

A new poll, partly conducted after the controversy over his earnings broke, suggested that Mr Livingstone was still set for a landslide victory in the London mayoral election. The ICM poll for the Evening Standard newspaper put him on 61 per cent, compared with Labour's candidate, Frank Dobson, on 16 per cent, the Tory, Steve Norris, on 13 per cent and the Liberal Democrat, Susan Kramer, on 8 per cent.