The Labour leadership finally relented yesterday and put the veteran left-wing MP, Mr Ken Livingstone, on its short-list of candidates for mayor of London. However, the Prime Minister, Mr Blair, said last night that Livingstone had to be stopped and this is now a battle for New Labour.
With the Brent MP the runaway choice in the opinion polls, the Prime Minister, Mr Blair, faces the very real prospect of having to campaign for "Red Ken" should he emerge victorious from Labour's electoral college.
Mr Livingstone's success in battling his way on to the shortlist was welcomed by the other candidates, Mr Frank Dobson and Ms Glenda Jackson. Bookmakers William Hill promptly cut the odds on the former greater London council leader becoming mayor from 6-4 to 5-4.
Mr Dobson registered the heat of the Livingstone challenge when he insisted he was not a Downing Street placeman.
"I am not the New Labour candidate in this contest. I am the real Labour candidate," declared Mr Dobson, who quit the cabinet last month to enter the race after a year-long search by the party leadership for a viable candidate.
After a shambolic two days of indecision, Mr Clive Soley MP, the chairman of Labour's 13-strong nomination panel, declared: "I am delighted to be able to put before Labour's membership three candidates.
"It has been a long process but we needed to be absolutely clear about the willingness of the candidates to stand on the party's programme, policies and the London manifesto."
The "compromise" formula permitting what was widely seen at Westminster as a climbdown by the party leadership had Mr Livingstone confirm he would abide by the London manifesto to be approved by the party's national executive committee. Mr Livingstone also had to confirm that he would not withdraw from the race if there were parts of the manifesto with which he disagreed.
However, after four hours inside Labour HQ at his second interview with the nomination panel, Mr Livingstone told reporters he had not been asked to give any undertakings about his policy on the future financing of the London Tube system.
Mr Livingstone insisted: "I wasn't asked to give any undertaking about Railtrack or public/private partnership.
"I gave a clear commitment I would accept the manifesto, and even if I had reservations about it, I would campaign as mayor on that manifesto."
Speaking after confirmation that he had made the short list, Mr Livingstone was again asked about his opposition to government policy on public/private finance for the Underground. "The party is now going to have an open, honest debate and I'm sure the whole party will accept the outcome," he said. "This is a government that listens to people and it will listen to London."
Mr Livingstone told Sky News: "I'm delighted. I have been saying for a year that Tony Blair made it quite clear they were not going to rig the election.
"Now we have got to listen to Labour Party members - who do they want, what do they want in the manifesto? And then the whole party has got to unite behind whoever is the candidate."
But Mr Livingstone's approach to policy making was not shared by Mr John Prescott. The deputy prime minister's insistence on strict adherence to the party's already stated policies had fuelled speculation throughout Wednesday that the former GLC leader's candidacy would be rejected. And a classic battle is now in prospect between New Labour and Old, with the votes of the trades unions, as ever, crucial.