241 Pizza

“I don’t see any complaints. But all the people who have shared my private life at one point or another was on the basis it was private between us.

And they didn’t expect me to be pontificating on the TV about it.”

Last night both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats refused to comment, with one Tory source saying that this was not an issue that they would use in the election campaign.

In November 2004 it emerged that Mr Johnson had had a four-year extra-marital affair with Petronella Wyatt, New York correspondent of The Spectator, which he edited. Mr Johnson initially denied the allegations but was later sacked by Michael Howard, then Conservative leader.

The new biography, Ken: the Ups and Downs of Ken Livingstone, was based on more than 25 hours of interviews with Mr Livingstone. The author said that these confirmed the Mayor as a very private person on some issues.

“He’s very open about his mum and dad and his house and his newts, but on certain aspects he’s incredibly private to the point of secrecy,” said Hoskens in a recent interview with The Bookseller.

In 1999, The Sunday Times reported that Labour Party insiders had started a campaign to smear Mr Livingstone, then running as an independent, with a story that he had fathered an illegitimate child.

One source close to Downing Street briefed a journalist from The Sunday Times last week about the mother of the child including her address and details of an alleged settlement with Mr Livingstone.

Asked about the story, Mr Livingstone replied: “If I am given the name of any Labour official spreading this I will issue a writ for malicious libel first thing on Monday morning.”

Political affairs

Cecil Parkinson the former Trade Secretary resigned in 1983 over relevations that his former secretary, Sara Keays, was carrying his child, Flora. He decided not to have any contact with his disabled daughter

Stephen Byers the former Labour Trade Secretary revealed in January 1999 that he had fathered a child when he was just 17

Clare Short Former Labour Cabinet minister became pregnant in the mid1960s and gave up the baby for adoption. At the age of 31, Toby Graham, a staunch Tory, traced his birth mother and Ms Short discovered in 1996 that she was a grandmother

David Blunkett resigned as Home Secretary after his affair with Kimberly Fortier, publisher of The Spectator, who was pregnant at the time, was made public. It was confirmed that he was the father of her two-year-old son

François Mitterrand the former French President had a daughter, Mazarine, with Anne Pingeot, one of his numerous mistresses Sources: Times database, BBC

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