Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, bowed to pressure from Olympic leaders yesterday by ditching Linford Christie, a convicted drug cheat, as a member of the official torch relay team in London during the build-up to the Beijing Games.

But there was confusion about who had invited the disgraced British sprinter after the Mayor’s office first denied that he had ever been asked and then blamed the fiasco on a “mistake” by unnamed officials.

The revelation on Thursday that Christie, 47, who was banned for two years in 1999 for a positive steroids test, would run with the Olympic flame over a 250m leg of the relay in April had left the sporting world in a state of disbelief.

The International Olympic Committee, the British Olympic Association (BOA) and opposition MPs joined a chorus of protest, demanding that his invitation be withdrawn given the mixed messages it sent about Britain’s attitude to drug cheats.

With a political storm brewing, the Greater London Authority (GLA) initially denied the story, citing “inaccurate” reports and denying that the Mayor had invited Christie, a 100m runner who won a gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. But within an hour, after Christie’s agent had distributed copies to the media of the November 15 invitation letter signed by Mr Livingstone, another statement had been released clarifying the position.

It had all been an administrative error, the GLA said. “The decision to invite Linford Christie was taken by officials and was a mistake,” a spokesman said.

“The Mayor merely issued letters to those they had decided to invite as a formality. The Mayor himself had the right to nominate five torchbearers. Linford Christie was not one of them.”

The three torchbearers that the GLA has announced are Dame Kelly Holmes, a double gold medal winner in Athens, the newsreader Sir Trevor McDonald and the actress Amara Khan. A total of 80 people will run along the route from Wembley Stadium – the site of the 1948 Games – to the O2 Arena, a 2012 venue, on April 6. The London leg is part of a 85,000-mile journey around the world before Beijing’s opening ceremony on August 8.

Christie’s potential involvement in one of the showcase Olympic occasions was particularly controversial because the BOA, which can also nominate torchbearers, has such a tough stance on drugs. Under its rules, any athlete convicted of a drug offence is also banned for life from representing Britain.

Brian Paddick, the Liberal Democrat mayoral candidate, said: “Londoners will be right to ask if the Mayor has any idea what he is putting his signature to.”