Livingstone accused of drunken attack

The furore surrounding Mr Livingstone’s behaviour at a drunken party a few weeks ago was plunged deeper into controversy yesterday when a man who, it is claimed, fell 15 feet after a violent tussle with the mayor spoke out about the incident for the first time.

Robin Hedges now says Mr Livingstone assaulted him and that he also "manhandled" Emma Beal, the mayor’s pregnant partner and office manager, at a late-night party in north London.

On Wednesday, Mr Livingstone issued an unprecedented personal statement which denied the claims, published in the Evening Standard newspaper. In it, he also denounced reports that he disappeared before police arrived at the incident - and accused the newspaper of plotting to replace him with a Tory. Mr Livingstone, who never normally comments on his private life, said that he had always vowed never to sue newspapers, no matter "how scurrilous or inaccurate" reports might be.

In extraordinary scenes in front of members of the 25-strong London assembly, he described the article as "one of the most inaccurate and distorted articles I have ever seen about myself".

However, Mr Hedges, 35, an art editor with the Evening Standard magazine, gave his own damning account of what happened - both at the party and in its wake.

In it, he claims that he was pressurised into agreeing to a damage-limitation statement issued by the mayor’s office which declared that his fall, which rendered him unconscious, was an accident. He also claims that the mayor had earlier become "uncontrollable" following a confrontation with Ms Beal.

The incident, which was reported in the London newspaper via a series of eyewitnesses last week, allegedly happened at a 40th birthday party for Ms Beal’s sister, Kate, on 19 May, at her flat in Tufnell Park.

Mr Hedges, who describes Emma Beal as "his closest friend", said that while he was in the sitting room at the party, he heard a commotion break out in the hallway.

"I heard Kate say, ‘Don’t hit my sister’. Kate and the others were just pushing Ken out of the door and shutting the door on him. Emma then followed to go and talk to him to try and calm him down," he told the paper.

Mr Hedges, whose detailed allegations were published on the front page and two inside pages of the Evening Standard yesterday, said that "scuffling and rowing" between Ms Beal and Mr Livingstone continued into the street. "I later found out the row was about Emma smoking," he said.

When he went out to find out what was happening, he said, he shouted for help as Mr Livingstone was "being out of control".

Ms Beal was then pulled up the stairs and into the flat, leaving Mr Livingstone, Mr Hedges and one or two others outside.

"Everyone was panicking. The whole incident seemed to flare up very quickly. Like everybody else, I just wanted to calm Ken down and protect Emma, as we were all worried about her safety."

When the front door was shut, said Mr Hedges, "Ken wanted to get back into the party. He was uncontrollable and went up to the door and was hammering on it. He was going ballistic and we were trying to calm him down and restrain him. We were grabbing on to his arms and trying to hold him. The last memory I have is of Ken’s arm lunging towards me."

Mr Hedges said that his next memory was coming to, briefly, in the ambulance and then again after he had an X-ray at the Whittington hospital.

At the time, he was accompanied by Mike Furniss, a 42-year-old designer who had been Emma Beal’s partner of several years before she met Mr Livingstone. He said that Mr Furniss said that he saw what had happened.

Mr Hedges said that Ms Beal’s sister, Kate, "told me that she was on the step below me so she saw him lash out and me go over the wall. She was sure it was an accident - she said he wouldn’t have meant to do it".

He was told that Mr Livingstone had gone down to see if Mr Hedges was all right,

Mr Hedges said that he was "extremely stressed and in great pain" and considered pressing charges against Mr Livingstone. Ms Beal, he said, talked him out of it, telling him: "You may as well hold a gun to my head now." She also told him: "He certainly wouldn’t have meant to hit you over the wall - he’s not like that."

After the incident, Mr Hedges gave a couple of quotes to the Evening Standard, in which he said: "It’s a horrible business and I’m still trying to come to terms with what happened both mentally and physically. Emma is my closest friend and I don’t want to do anything that might upset her."

Once the story was published, he said, Ms Beal and a representative of the Greater London Authority began a damage-limitation exercise.

He was asked by Ms Beal to sign as statement which read: "The simple fact is that I attended a 40th birthday party on Tufnell Park Road during which I had a fall and injured myself.

"It is false to suggest that anyone else was involved - it was an accident. It is highly misleading and unfair to imply anything else."

At first, he said, he argued, saying to her: "There was another party involved and there was violence involved.

"She said that, if I didn’t say yes to the quote, I would have journalists outside my flat for three or four days. The papers would just keep on reprinting the same old quotes I had given to the Standard. My life would be hell. She said that Ken would go down. As a result of that, she said that she would go down with him. She then said, ‘Do you want that?’ Emma said, ‘Your life will be hell and you will go down too’.

"By this point, she was hysterical and crying and I was under pressure to give the GLA an answer fast. I hated hearing my friend screaming like that."

He claimed he agreed under duress: "I said, ‘Emma, you know this is wrong. You know this isn’t what happened. This goes against all my principles. I want you to know I am only doing this for our friendship’."

In his statement, issued on Wednesday, Mr Livingstone said Women’s Aid had verified for itself that the claims that he had assaulted Ms Beal were "without foundation".

He accused the newspaper of resorting to "unfounded personal smears" because it could not achieve its "goal of getting a Tory Mayor of London elected" on the grounds of quality.

Yesterday, a spokeswoman from Mr Livingstone’s office in London refused to comment on Mr Hedges’ account. She said: "We do not comment on Ken’s private life and have nothing to add to yesterday’s statement."

Timetable of mayoral trouble

Sunday 19 May At 1:30 am an ambulance is called to the home of Kate Beal in Tufnell Park Road, north London, following an incident involving Ken Livingstone, 57, the Mayor of London, and Robin Hedges, 35, a magazine art editor. Mr Hedges is later admitted to London’s Royal Free hospital with a hairline fracture to his hip. The police arrive shortly after.

Friday 25 May Robin Hedges speaks to Emma Beal for the first time about the incident.

Friday 31 May News of the "accident" breaks in the Evening Standard. Mr Hedges invites an Evening Standard reporter into his Archway home. Mr Hedges does not dispute the fact that he had been involved in a tussle with Mr Livingstone following the Mayor’s row with Ms Beal and says: "Emma is my closest friend. It was a horrible business and I’m still trying to get over it and to come to terms with what happened physically and mentally. I’m not going to take it any further or sue him."

Wednesday 19 June Mr Livingstone speaks for the first time of his involvement in the role. In a statement issued in front of the London Assembly, the Mayor attempted to refute allegations surrounding his conduct at the party held to celebrate the 40th birthday of Kate beal, his partner’s sister.

THE POLITICAL MAVERICK

KEN Livingstone, 57, was born in Lambeth in 1945 and educated at Tulse Hill Comprehensive School.

After eight years working as a technician at the Chester Beatty Cancer Research Institute in London, he entered Phillipa Fawcett Teacher Training College, qualifying in 1973.

In 1971 he joined Lambeth Council, holding the position of vice-chair of the housing committee from 1971-73.

He joined the Greater London Council in 1973.

In the 1979 General Election he was Labour candidate for Hampstead and Highgate, and in 1987 he became MP for Brent East, re-elected in 1992 with a 6 per cent swing to Labour.

Livingstone was elected Mayor of London on 4 May, 2000.

THE PA WRITER’S DAUGHTER

EMMA Beal, 36, who runs Mr Livingstone's office at the London Assembly, is the daughter of the distinguished writer Anthony Beal, who was chairman of Heinemann educational books until the mid-1980s.

She left Bushey Hall School, a state secondary close to her family home in Radlett, Hertfordshire, in 1982 with one O-level in English language and five GCSEs. A friend said: "Emma was a very popular girl, but struggled academically."

She began a relationship with Ken Livingstone, 20 years her senior, after he split with his long term partner Kate Allen, 45.

Ms Beal, Livingstone’s office manager and personal assistant, is heavily pregnant with his child after a romantic sojourn in Australia.

THE WHISTLE BLOWER

A CLOSE friend of Ms Beal, Robin Hedges met her while they were both working for the Evening Standard’s ES magazine.

Mr Hedges, who was taken to the Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead, north London, after the incident with his head in a neck-brace, fell on his left side, striking his head, shoulder, collar bone and leg.

He has sustained injuries so severe that he is still using painkillers four and a half weeks after the event.

Mr Hedges is now recovering at his London flat in Archway, and has risen to become arts editor for the ES magazine.

Mr Hedges is also a close friend of Ms Beal’s ex-boyfriend for several years, 42-year-old designer Mike Furniss.