- guardian.co.uk, Monday 21 February 2000 18.15 GMT
As Mr Dobson floated the prospect of a job for the former Greater London council leader and some pro-Livingstone unions and activists warned him against the gamble of an independent candidacy, Mr Livingstone denounced the result as "tainted" - and kept his options open.
With intense support from Tony Blair and the Millbank party machine, Mr Dobson scraped home with 51.53% of the three-sided electoral college against Mr Livingstone's 48.47%, but only after the votes of the third candidate, Glenda Jackson - who won 4.21% of the initial votes - had been redistributed between the frontrunners.
The narrowest result in the bitterest internal Labour election since the Tony Benn-Denis Healey deputy leadership fight of 1981 allowed Mr Dobson to demand the support of his beaten rivals in the coming battle against the Tory candidate, Steve Norris, on May 4.
"I stand by the result and I expect other candidates to do what they said they would do," Mr Dobson said.
Ms Jackson did so even before the ballot results were announced. Mr Livingstone, who stayed at home, renewed his campaign for Mr Dobson to do the "honourable" thing and accept that he is too unpopular - and too close to Downing Street - to beat Mr Norris.
"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," Mr Livingstone said.
But he also urged his supporters - who helped him win the trade union and constituency sections of the electoral college, but not MPs - to "stay inside the Labour party and fight to ensure this does not happen again".
Some MPs and cabinet ministers took that as a sign that the Brent East MP will draw back from an independent candidacy which some polls say he would win, but which would be bloody and divisive.
Last night there were few signs that any prominent figures or unions would court expulsion by endorsing such a run.
Geoff Martin, London convenor of Unison - whose members voted by four to one for Mr Livingstone - called for talks to "salvage" a dream result for the Tories. "It would be an absolute disaster if Millbank just continued to plough on regardless and ignored the clear wishes of the vast majority of rank-and-file trade unionists and party members who have given such a clear and ringing endorsement to Ken Livingstone," he said.
Downing Street, widely blamed for trying to control devolved government yet again, after the battle for Welsh first secretary this time last year, stayed out of the public row, although speculation that Tony Blair will offer Mr Livingstone, 54, a ministerial job is misplaced. Instead, party officials warned that "the entire party would turn against him" if he runs, contrary to his promise to abide by the contest's rules.
That claim is disputed because of the way some affiliated organisations - the Amalgamated Engineering and Electrical Union and the south London co-op, in particular, with 8% of the electoral college between them - failed to ballot members.
Feeling ran strong that Mr Livingstone had been denied the victory he deserved by the party machine. "We had to do what we had to do to block him, but from his point of view he won all the votes that could not be fixed," one former ally on the left conceded.
In the event, Mr Livingstone won both the members' and affiliated union sections, but was beaten by the votes of MPs, MEPs and Greater London assembly candidates. The Brent East MP polled an estimated total of 74,646 votes in all three sections, compared to 22,275 for Mr Dobson and 11,185 for Ms Jackson.
In the members' section, the former GLC leader won 19,548 first preference votes to Mr Dobson's 12,559, giving him 59.9% to 40.1% after Ms Jackson's second preferences had been shared out.
Mr Livingstone appears to be hoping that the Dobson campaign will quickly flounder amid popular indignation and allow him to step into the breach - much as Rhodri Morgan took over from the hapless Alun Michael as Welsh first secretary. But Mr Dobson, 60 next month, is generally regarded as a tougher politician than Mr Michael and pledged yesterday he would be nobody's patsy.
He went out of his way yesterday to court both Mr Livingstone and Ms Jackson as "very talented people" who he would "like to be involved both in our campaign and also any administration I presided over. But I don't want to be patronising; they might want to take part, they may not."
