Lynne Featherstone

Well - today's Evening Standard has brought the news that Ken Livingstone is going to be sued for libel by Brenda Stern. She's the whistleblower who highlighted a series of concerns over financial management during Ken's reign and was sacked, raising the obvious question of whether she was sacked because she'd raised those concerns.

Mayor Livingstone has laid into her, saying, "we had to get rid of after complaints she was intimidatory to the staff working for her."

But as the Evening Standard reports:

A complaint of bullying was made against her but in a letter seen by the Standard, LDA chief executive Manny Lewis says the allegation was investigated and was "not founded".

Tsk tsk Ken. Not really much of a surprise that a libel action looks likely to be the outcome of this spat - but there's also this very worrying footnote to today's news:

The Mayor's office hit back, threatening that if Ms Stern sued, the GLA would investigate "other matters" apart from her stint at the LDA, including her past life and previous employment.

What on earth is all that about Ken? Oh, and will it be London taxpayers' money you'll be spending on digging into the past lives of your staff?

Comments

1. dreamingspire says:

   26 January 2008 at 10:55 am

   To London yesterday, and bought the Standard on the way home. The article that you quote was of really high standard (sic). But something said by Ken on Radio 4 had stuck with me: his statement that his senior staff work 60 or 70 hours a week. Should not he be prosecuted for breach of the Working Time regulations?