- guardian.co.uk, Friday 3 March 2000 03.01 GMT
In the first public encounter between the two men since Mr Dobson won the Labour nomination, the former health secretary eyeballed his rival on BBC1's Question Time and asked: "Are you going to support me or are you going to stand separately? Go on - make my day."
Sadly for Millbank, which was nervously watching the encounter, Mr Dobson failed to have the same chilling effect on Mr Livingstone as Clint Eastwood had on his quarry.
Lacking Dirty Harry's gun and confident poise, Mr Dobson failed to rattle Mr Livingstone, who remained unmoved by the challenge. In an elliptical response, the former GLC leader said he would give Labour time to "sort out the mess" and embrace him as the party's official candidate.
The Labour party's unlikely incarnation of Dirty Harry made an 11th-hour decision to appear alongside Mr Livingstone in an attempt to quash rumours that he would stand down as Labour's candidate and to force his rival into stating whether he would stand as an independent.
Angered by rumours circulating at Westminster all week that he is planning to stand down, Mr Dobson insisted that he was determined to remain in the fray.
"Let me make it clear Ken, I have made up my mind," he said. "I will say it to your face. I am the official Labour candidate. I am not going to stand down. No matter how much you and your friends organise within the Labour party in London to try and have a go at me I will not change my mind."
Mr Livingstone, who won the overwhelming support of London Labour members in the party's mayoral ballot, made clear on Question Time last night that he was still determined to oust Mr Dobson as the Labour candidate.
In heated exchanges, he said: "It's no good Frank, simply saying, 'I'm not going to change my mind, I'm not going to listen.' Londoners expect you to listen. Londoners would rather you stood down, so the Labour party members get the candidate they voted for, which is me."
However, the normally confident Mr Livingstone also betrayed nerves as he refused to make clear whether he would stand as an independent after his earlier insistence that he would support Labour's official candidate. His voice almost breaking, he said: "This is the most difficult decision in my life. I don't want to break my word, but at the same time I am being deluged by ordinary people in London who want me to stand."
The television spat between Mr Dobson and Mr Livingstone came after the government finally backed down over the issue of freepost mailshots for the election, agreeing a compromise that will see every voter sent a booklet with addresses from each candidate.
