Labour's ruling national executive committee yesterday rejected Ken Livingstone's bid to rejoin the party.

Livingstone, who was expelled after he stood as an independent candidate in the 2000 London mayoral election, was seeking to rejoin the party in time to become Labour's candidate for the 2004 mayoral contest.

But his attempt at rapprochement with Labour failed when the party's executive voted 17 to 13 against allowing the mayor rejoining.

Livingstone said the party leadership was "riding roughshod" over the wishes of party members.

The mayor was in the high court yesterday for the first day of another legal challenge to the government's Tube PPP plan.