- guardian.co.uk, Saturday 18 March 2000 02.47 GMT
Mr Smeath, a close associate of Jeremy Fraser, Mr Dobson's campaign manager, admitted that he had persuaded the postgraduate student John Jones, "albeit reluctantly", to sign and send the complaint to Elizabeth Filkin, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, in December.
Mr Smeath's admission came less than 24 hours after Mr Jones had issued a statement through Loughborough University, claiming: "None of this is anything to do with me."
Mr Smeath, a lawyer, is a campaign organiser for the Labour party in Southwark, south London, and has been arranging canvassing for the mayoral elections to win support for Mr Dobson and Labour candidates for the Greater London authority.
Last night Mr Dobson's campaign officials were trying to limit the damage caused by the underhand way the complaint had been handled, insisting that neither Mr Dobson nor Mr Phillips had known about what Mr Smeath had done.
Mr Dobson's spokeswoman conceded that Mr Smeath's decision to ask someone else to sign his complaint was "maybe a silly thing to do" in the light of his links with Mr Fraser and the Labour party. But she added: "It was not dirty tricks, it was a legitimate complaint."
Mr Fraser, who employed Mr Smeath as his parliamentary agent for his failed attempt to capture North Southwark and Bermondsey for Labour from the Liberal Democrats in the 1997 general election, insisted yesterday that Mr Smeath had not told him about the ruse to damage Mr Livingstone.
But Piers Corbyn, Mr Fraser's campaign organiser in 1997 and a Livingstone supporter, said yesterday that Mr Fraser and Mr Smeath were "hand in glove".
He added: "The suggestion that Rogert Smeath would do this without speaking to Jeremy Fraser I find impossible to believe. Politicians should do their own dirty work, not use third or fourth parties." Mr Smeath said yesterday that he had arranged for the complaint because "I wanted to get the issue of MPs not declaring earnings discussed. I was so incensed."
In an interview with the London Evening Standard, he explained: "I had been involved in the Trevor Phillips campaign and I wanted to be distanced from any idea that Trevor was making me do this. I am not so much a fan of Frank as I am of Trevor. I wanted to keep it so they could get on with their work."
Meanwhile, Loughborough University was anxiously trying to reach Mr Jones, who had disappeared from his home in Shepshed in Leicestershire, to explain his earlier statement.
"He was adamant and he kept on denying the claims and we were just acting on his behalf," a spokesman said. "We are getting a bit confused. "
At Westminster, Labour organisers blasted the inexperienced and, one said, shambolic handling of the Phillips and Dobson campaigns. "Juvenile, adolescent - it's so bloody galling," said one senior Dobson supporter. "Never underestimate the ability of the Labour party to do very stupid things," another said.
Mr Livingstone, speaking at Kensington town hall in west London where he was opening an Animal Aid campaign, said: "We knew that it was organised from someone of the Millbank tendency. We were just surprised that it was someone so close to Trevor and Frank. There will be lots more dirty tricks but I don't think the public is drawn in."
