HUMPHRYS: But first, that race for Mayor of London. The Tories like to tear themselves apart over Europe. The Labour Party's enjoying a good old punch-up over who will get this plum, political job. Ken Livingstone is the people's choice - or so the polls say - but NOT Tony Blair's. The leadership wants anyone but him, preferably, Frank Dobson. I'll be talking to Mr Dobson after this report from Jonathon Beale. JONATHAN BEALE: Frank Dobson's political career is proving to be something of a mystery tour - even for him. Along the way he never expressed much of an interest in having a directly elected Mayor for the capital, even less of being a candidate for that job. That's where he's now heading, but there are signs that it's not going to be a particularly pleasant journey for the Labour Party or for him: JOHN GUMMER: I think he's a very nice man. There's nothing wrong with him, it's just that he's been forced to do the wrong job at the wrong time on the wrong terms. MARK SEDDON: We don't want Jeffrey Archer in and my fear is that he might get let in if the electors and Labour Party people see this to be an unfair process. BEALE: Frank Dobson's voyage appropriately started in London Local Government here at Camden town hall nearly thirty years ago. It didn't take him long to become chairman of the housing committee and then the council leader. ACTUALITY: BEALE: His appearance and his politics were of an era when sideburns where fashionable and so were high spending Labour councils. But along the way he's made the transformation from old to new Labour, despite growing the beard. Frank Dobson had arrived at Westminster at the start of the 80s. At various times he served as the party's spokesman on Environment, Transport and Health and on London. As Labour's London spokesman in parliament, Frank Dobson did not at first support the idea of a directly elected Mayor. He wanted a new slimline authority to replace the GLC once housed here in County Hall and abolished by Mrs Thatcher. But Tony Blair intervened, he argued for a powerful political figurehead to put London on an equal footing with other world capitals. Frank Dobson was forced to follow his leader. When he helped launch Labour's Manifesto in the '97 General Election, Frank Dobson's political opponents were surprised that he was now championing a policy that he once seemed set against: GUMMER: The first question any Londoner has to say to themselves is: is this man passionate about this city? Does he really want to do something and does he think being Mayor worthwhile? Now I don't think Frank Dobson could possibly fit that pattern. I think Ken Livingstone does - but I think he's wrong in what he'd do. I think Jeffrey Archer does and I think in general he's right in what he wants to do. But the point is, I want to have a contest between people who believe in the post and want to make it work and I don't think Frank Dobson begins. BEALE: After Labour's victory, how to run London wasn't an issue that Frank Dobson thought he 'd have to worry about. He was now treading the path to higher office, running a big Whitehall spending department as Health Secretary. He said it was a job in which he wanted to remain. But just across the road in Downing Street, senior figures were still searching for the right candidate. Some party activists believe this is where a campaign is being orchestrated to stop Ken Livingstone. SEDDON: It's not so much the fact that this is very probably being orchestrated, it's the fact that it's so personal and unpleasant and I actually don't think that Frank Dobson approves of all this. I think that Frank has got to tell these people that it's not helping his campaign and its not helping the Labour Party and if it carries on like this for the next few weeks, the only person who is going to benefit - it's not going to be Frank Dobson or Glenda Jackson or Ken Livingstone, it's going to be Jeffrey Archer. BEALE: The same is being said of the system Labour Party officials have devised to choose the Labour candidate. They've discarded one member one vote for an electoral college, giving greater say to MPs and the unions. What's more party headquarters isn't even asking the unions to ballot their members. JIMMY KNAPP: You know the one minute the block vote is tainted but then it seems to become a very useful tool, so there is - you've got to be honest and say there's a bit of an ironic twist in that, but you know I'm still where I was six years ago, you know I believe in individual members having a vote. SEDDON: I don't think anybody in the Labour Party would disagree that Jeffrey Archer would be a disaster as Mayor, and that really must be the main job, to make sure that he isn't elected and we get a Labour mayor in. But if the rules get twisted and people say it's unfair. then it's going to be very difficult to motivate them to campaign for anybody. BEALE: The fear is that Labour voters will stay at home, like they did in Wales where the leadership was accused of trying to manipulate the outcome. The Tories are already claiming that Labour's rigged the election to help Frank Dobson. GUMMER: We're going to have it looks like an election between the Conservative candidate who was elected by all the Conservative members of the party in London and a Labour candidate who was appointed by Tony Blair. Now I think that if you want a mayor for London, if you think that's a good idea, the prerequisite is that he is decided by the people of London. One of the two major candidates will have been decided by the Prime Minister. BEALE: The timing of Frank Dobson's entry into the race has been surprising, not just for the set riggers who've been putting the finishing touches to launch his challenge. There's a strong sense of last minute decisions in the Dobson for Mayor campaign. There's Nick Raynsford's sudden withdrawal from the contest within days of announcing his own candidacy. Trevor Philips has also moved aside and is now standing as Dobson's deputy. There are still questions as to whether Frank Dobson has thought out a coherent set of policies to beat off the challenges of Glenda Jackson and Ken Livingstone and to go on to become Mayor. And he's yet to convince his opponents and the public that he's prepared to break free from the Government in which he served and voice the concerns of Londoners, not just new Labour. DOBSON: If you ask most Londoners the issue that most effects their quality of life, the answer you will hear most frequently is crime. BEALE: His fist initiative has been a ten point plan to fight crime . He's calling for a named police officer for every citizen, a clampdown on kerb crawling, but significantly he's not promising more bobbies on the beat. TONY TRAVERS: There is no doubt that given the relative weakness of the finances of the Mayor of London that they will only have access to a relatively small council tax, a fair income of the tube which can't be moved hugely and possibly in future a congestion charges or some office car parking levies. But there is, the only other way to look for money is to government. To have what many London Politicians see as more of London's money back from the rest of the country. Now the rest of the country doesn't see it quite like that - but that's how London politicians will fight it and I think that any London Mayor who cannot independently fight hard with the Treasury and other bits of Government for more money will be seen as not doing a good job for the capital. BEALE: But on the capital's key issue Transport, Frank Dobson seems unwilling to do battle with his former cabinet colleagues. The Government wants public private partnership to pay for improvements to the tube. So far Frank Dobson appears to be sticking to the Government's plans. Rail Unions say it's privatisation and want it rejected. KNAPP: I hope to convince all the candidates, I don't know how many there are going to be yet, that the tube is best left in the public sector - totally under public sector control - and that finance should be arranged by alternative methods and I would hope to convince Frank or any other candidate of that argument I'm sure there's many other issues he'll be commenting on, but the fact that we are a public transport union, obviously the Underground situation is going to be a very big issue in our members minds and that's you know where the biggest difficulty for Frank might come. TRAVERS: What the PPP is, is a way of getting the private sector to invest in the tube and then effectively leasing it back to the mayor over twenty or thirty years. Now Ken Livingstone is bitterly against that, Glenda Jackson is in favour. Frank Dobson is now apparently wavering somewhere between these two positions and frankly it will be seen as an enormous test of what the distance between Frank Dobson and the Labour Party nationally as to what his view is on this public private partnership which is enormously unpopular. BEALE: They say you shouldn't start a journey unless you know where you're going. Frank Dobson embarked on the race for mayor without time to plan his route. Unless he finds his bearings, even leadership support may not guarantee his safe arrival.