KEN LIVINGSTONE, London’s mayor, has been threatened with referral to the election watchdog unless he stops printing a controversial newspaper branded as “flagrant propaganda” at the taxpayer’s expense.

The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are calling for The Londoner, a 20-page free newspaper sent to millions of homes in the capital, to be withdrawn in the run-up the mayoral election on May 1.

The Londoner, referred to as “Ken’s Pravda” by Livingstone’s enemies in the London Assembly, is written by public servants and sent to 3m households. It is produced and distributed at a cost of over £3m a year.

Critics say the paper paints a relentlessly upbeat picture of Livingstone and his policies. The current issue contains 10 mentions and two photos of Livingstone as well as his column and a slot entitled “Letters to Ken”.

Both opposition parties say they will refer the paper to the Electoral Commission, the election watchdog, if it is published in the run-up to the election.

It is the latest in a series of criticisms that Livingstone has used public resources for political ends. Last week, Atma Singh, an official employed at taxpayer’s expense to work alongside the mayor at City Hall, revealed a series of e-mails which show he was asked to write an article, during office hours, urging Asian voters to back Livingstone.

Singh said that in the run-up to the 2004 mayoral election, 90% of his working time was spent on the mayor’s reelection campaign. Livingstone had previously maintained his staff had only ever campaigned for him during their private time.

The Mayor is also coming under increasing pressure to curb his spending on press officers. A cross-party committee of MPs that scrutinises the Mayor’s budget plans recently criticised Livingstone for hiring more press officers.

Under his 2008-9 spending plans, the mayor would have 70 press and marketing officers – more than four times as many as the prime minister’s office.

The budget scrutiny committee’s report reads: “The mayor is continuing to budget for staff for which approval was refused or deferred by the Assembly’s business management and appointments committee during 2007 . . . We call on the mayor to relieve pressure within the GLA group by removing these unnecessary posts from the budget.”

Livingstone’s reelection campaign has been beset with bad publicity in recent weeks. The Metropolitan police and the Audit Commission have launched investigations into projects funded by the mayor’s aides. The level of the mayor’s alcohol consumption in public, most recently at last month’s World Economic Forum in Davos, has also attracted comment.

On the front page of the latest issue of The Londoner, Livingstone writes what could be construed as a political message: “We must ensure no one is allowed to reverse or undermine the tough targets which I have set for affordable housing and which enjoy such strong support for London.”

In one of his monthly columns late last year, he wrote: “London has now overtaken New York as the world’s greatest centre of commerce . . . tangible proof of the progress we have made.” Conservatives and Liberal Democrat politicians seldom if ever grace the paper’s pages.

Tory candidate Boris Johnson said: “To date, the current mayor has spent up to £15m of taxpayers’ money on a publication that simply promotes himself.

“It must be scrapped – it is flagrant propaganda. I would spend that money on more worthwhile projects that will actually benefit Londoners, not massaging egos.”

A spokesperson for the Greater London Authority said yesterday: “The content of every issue [of the newsletter] is carefully checked by lawyers to ensure that it contains no political bias.”

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