Profile: Ken Livingstone

Ken Livingstone's defeat in the London mayoral election brings to an end a remarkable political career.

Elected London mayor as an independent when the post was created in 2000, Livingstone went on to re-join the Labour Party and win re-election in 2004.

His mayoralty itself capped an extraordinary comeback after the Greater London Council that he ran in the 1980s had been abolished by the then Conservative government.

And he will be remembered for a range of radical reforms such as the congestion charge and Oyster card, as well as his part in winning the 2012 Olympics for London and securing the go-ahead for the Crossrail capital rail project.

However throughout his colourful career, Livingstone has also been dogged by controversy.

The 62-year-old first joined the GLC in 1973 and his profile rose when he became its leader 1981, a position he held until then prime minister Baroness Thatcher abolished it in 1986.

Known publicly by his first name, the former Brent East MP remains a bastion of left-wing politics, earning him a formidable reputation among much of the tabloid and London media.

Livingstone won the 2000 mayoral race as an independent after narrowly losing Labour's internal selection contest to Frank Dobson in 2000.

He had insisted at the start of the contest that he would not break away from the party, but after losing to Dobson he claimed that the voting system had been rigged against him and put himself forward to defend the "principle of London's right to govern itself".

He successfully introduced the congestion charge in his first term and was readmitted to Labour in time to win a second term at City Hall in 2004.

Tony Blair, who had said that Livingstone would be a "disaster" for London, accepted he had been wrong.

Career

Born in Lambeth in 1945 to a dancer and a merchant seaman, Livingstone has lived in London his whole life.

He attended Tulse Hill Comprehensive, working as a cancer research laboratory technician and joining the Labour Party in 1969.

Two years later he was elected to Lambeth Borough Council while training to be a teacher.

Livingstone has also been a councillor in Camden, but failed in his first attempt to become an MP for Hampstead at the 1979 general election.

As GLC leader, he imposed a levy on councils to keep bus and Tube fares down with his Fares Fair policy and the use of public transport increased drastically in the capital.

Despite its popularity, Fares Fair was eventually declared unlawful and Livingstone became an MP in 1987, one year after the GLC was abolished.

For a decade, Livingstone remained high profile but relatively powerless as a backbench MP.

He stood down from Brent East in 2001.

Controversy

Livingstone has always had a rocky relationship with the Labour leadership.

Neil Kinnock considered him a nuisance, and although he got on better with John Smith his popularity in the party suffered another setback when Blair became leader in 1994.

Known in the media as a member of the "loony left", he was in favour of talking to Sinn Fein and the IRA.

He has also acted to address inequality towards women and ethnic minorities in the capital, and been a strong supporter of the recognition of gay rights.

No stranger to controversy, he hit the headlines in 2006 for comparing a Jewish journalist to a concentration camp guard. His four week suspension from office was later overruled by a High Court judge.

In 2007-08, Livingstone's chief race adviser Lee Jasper faced sustained allegations from the Evening Standard about funding irregularities within the London Development Agency.

An internal inquiry cleared Jasper of any wrongdoing and the mayor insisted he would "trust Lee with my life". 

However, attention soon turned to another one of Livingstone's key advisers, Rosemary Emodi, who resigned after it emerged that she had lied about taking a free weekend in Nigeria.

Livingstone has two children with his partner Emma Beal and, it emerged during this year's campaign, three other children from previous relationships.

He has said the mayoralty will be his last job in public life and plans to devote more time to his family as well as writing his memoirs.