Livingstone faces full-scale inquiry

The dispute over Ken Livingstone's conduct at a party reignited spectacularly last night when a watchdog, the Standards Board for England, was asked to launch a full-scale investigation.

If the board finds Mr Livingstone has behaved improperly, he could ultimately be suspended as Mayor of London and barred from public office for up to five years. The board was set up to monitor standards of propriety among mayors and councillors.

The Liberal Democrats made a formal request for an investigation. The affair is likely to hang over the Mayor's head while his application to rejoin the Labour Party is considered this month.

His supporters believed he had weathered the worst of the controversy last week when he gave an account of the incident and denied that he had assaulted either his pregnant partner, Emma Beal, or Robin Hedges, a friend of hers.

But the Liberal Democrats pressed the issue after a London newspaper, the Evening Standard, continued to make allegations about him. Lord Tope, the Liberal Democrat leader on the London Assembly, said: "I believe that only by having the Standards Board investigate this matter can the question of who is telling the truth be solved."

Mr Livingstone said: "This decision by Lord Tope is almost certainly an abuse of the Standards Board, which was set up to deal with matters such as corruption and gerrymandering."