Livingstone must not be London Mayor

LONDON is a great international city and in the coming decade we must build on its success, not put it at risk. Forty thousand businesses started in London last year and since 1997 100,000 new jobs have been created.

And we can do even better getting thousands more back to work. Today it was announced that unemployment is down to 190,000, its lowest for 20 years.

If you want to know what divides the political parties in London today then just look at what Steve Norris, the new Tory candidate and his party say about security and opportunity for Londoners.

The Tories oppose the New Deal, which is helping 93,000 young people in London and the South-East back to work.

They oppose the Working Families Tax Credit benefiting 125,000 families in London. They oppose Child Benefit rises for 1.5 million children in London.

They oppose the National Minimum Wage which will help over 100,000 people in the capital. They even opposed our extra spending on health and education.

The Tories would leave working families insecure, teenagers denied even the basic opportunity to work and pensioners in poverty.

Just as the choice between Labour and the Tories is clear, so too is the choice Labour Party members face.

Frank Dobson wants to build on the Labour Government's efforts to promote jobs, bring business to London and modernise London Transport.

The question for Ken Livingstone is, does he still propose an old style back-to-the-Eighties economic agenda that would threaten to hurt Londoners?

Every Labour Party member knows the last thing London or Labour needs is a return to the barren divisive fights over economic policy of the Eighties.

Yet Ken Livingstone's personal economic agenda is not only to spend 1997, 1998 and 1999 predicting recession, but to oppose our plans for stability and Bank of England independence. And Labour Party members will want to ask whether he will encourage new business investment in London - or whether he still proposes to impose new business tax rises and six new taxes in total.

LONDON has over a quarter of a million businesses in total, employing 3.3 million Londoners. The economic success of London depends on new business creation, on making the New Deal for Jobs work, on rebuilding our transport infrastructure and on fairness to all in need.

London needs a Mayor who will be an ambassador, encouraging new business creation. Almost 800 businesses a week weigh up the pros and cons of whether to locate in the capital whether to create new jobs or to go elsewhere.

If our strategy for full employment is to work - to ensure London's young people have a future - we need more businesses creating more jobs.

The best job-creating environment requires both a Government and a Mayor promoting a stable economic regime, the new Deal, and a fair business and personal

tax regime. This is Frank Dobson's policy and he rightly urges us to improve training for work. Indeed the needs of the 195,000 unemployed in London will not be tackled unless we strengthen the rights and responsibilities of the New Deal and ensure everyone has the chance to get the skills they need for a job.

But what would threaten jobs and put the economy at risk is to attack the very policies that are creating stability and steady growth - and then to advocate huge business and personal tax rises, an Eighties-style economic policy and a rerun of the old fights over economic policy at the heart of the Labour Party.

The signals sent about attitudes to tax do have an effect on investment decisions. So does Mr Livingstone still want a Corporation Tax rising from 30 per cent to 40 per cent a 2 billion tax rise, making it more difficult for London companies to hire employees?

Is he still proposing an additional and separate business tax only for London, which would, if in the manifesto, chase new investment away?

He has proposed, and members will want to know if he still wants, a London-only air passenger tax - which would stop people flying to and from Heathrow airport on which so many jobs depend.

And they will want to know as well if he has changed his proposal for three new personal tax rates of 50p, 60p and 99p because sending such a message would be no way to attract new investment for the people of London - and will move us away from our goal of full employment.

For Ken Livingstone the Tube has become an issue of economic dogma, ignoring the realities of getting the investment needed to improve everyday life for Londoners. First, he is promoting the fiction that public sector bonds are the cost effective - indeed cost- free - way of financing the Tube.

In fact, his scheme would saddle London with 8 billion to 10 billion of debts.

SECOND, he says he would freeze fares but fails to say how he would meet the interest and repayment cost on the bonds. A fare freeze would cut another 225 million from the crucial first four years of the modernisation programme - threatening more debt.

And third his plans would cost billions more than Labour's partnership because the plans would lose the efficiency savings guaranteed under contract and they would risk a repeat of the Jubilee Line cost and time overruns.

Labour's partnership for the Tube will provide the investment and the private sector expertise required to modernise our transport system. it will invest 12.5 billion over 15 years to modernise and maintain the Tube.

And contrary to claims, the assets return to the public sector. Private sector management is responsible for repairs and infrastructure, but throughout, the public sector will run the trains, staff the stations, operate the signals, and be responsible for safety.

The truth is that the Livingstone plan would gain London nothing, but put at risk the vital improvements to London Underground that our partnership will deliver.

I've worked with Frank Dobson for almost 20 years and I've seen his commitment to the capital at first hand.

I've seen as well his commitment to the Labour Party. I saw at first hand the contribution he made to our general election campaign and the key role he played in the victory we worked so hard to achieve. He was a central member of the team which beat the Tories. And I've seen the way he fights his corner and argues his case. London could ask for no more effective a champion.

Frank is a loyal member of the party and like most party members, he wants to build on the New Deal, the Minimum Wage, new rights for trade unions and our reform of the House of Lords.

Most members know that we discuss issues in private and then unite in public.

That's what the Labour Party does and that's what Frank does.

So it is not enough for London Mayor candidates to be colourful, their manifesto must be credible if they are to achieve what a London Mayor should want - the goal of full employment and prosperity for all London's citizens.

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