- guardian.co.uk, Sunday 20 February 2000 15.18 GMT
The overwhelming majority of Labour party members and trade unionists have voted for me, whereas Frank secured the support of just over one third of Labour party members.
At a rough estimate, a total of 80,000 people have voted for me in all sections of the electoral college, compared to 25,000 for Frank.
This huge democratic mandate is a ringing endorsement of the policies I have put to the London Labour party.
The support I have received from party members, trade unionists and ordinary Londoners has been overwhelming.
I am grateful to them for their encouragement throughout this campaign.
This result has been delivered by one trade union boss, one retired MEP and one small Co-op branch, which did not ballot its members.
It is based on the fact that 8% of the electoral college was voted by Sir Ken Jackson and the South London Co-op, who refused to allow their members to cast their own votes and cast them instead for Frank Dobson.
I urge everybody to stay inside the Labour party and fight to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again.
There must now be a serious question over whether Frank can hope to beat Steven Norris on May 4 when Londoners will widely perceive the Labour nomination to have been stolen.
The lesson of Wales is that our voters will not be taken for granted.
A Labour campaign that was dead in the water from day one, will limp on to polling day and never allow us to get on to the real issues that matter to Londoners, such as transport, unemployment and crime.
In the interests of uniting the Labour party, I hope Frank Dobson will consider his position over the next few days.
He must decide whether he is willing to accept this tainted result or stand down in the interests of Labour and London.
Over the last six months Londoners have had to listen to politicians. Now it is time for politicians to listen to Londoners, and I shall be saying nothing further until I have had a chance to listen to Londoners.
