Trade and industry secretary Stephen Byers yesterday became the first minister to break New Labour's political quarantine around Ken Livingstone when he met the newly-elected mayor to discuss the closure threat hanging over Ford's Dagenham car factory.
The two men agreed to work together to intensify pressure on the US-owned multinational to maintain manufacturing production at the Essex site - Ford is expected to announce the closure of the Fiesta assembly plant on Friday - and maximise investment in the area to offset the expected loss of more than 2,000 jobs.
Mr Livingstone, who was sworn in as mayor at the temporary Greater London assembly headquarters at Westminster yesterday, is also seeking an emergency meeting with senior Ford managers.
He will argue that Ford's reputation in Britain as a good "corporate citizen" will be seriously damaged if it goes ahead with plans to phase out car production in a country which now accounts for 28% of its European market.
Mr Livingstone has already met union and business leaders to discuss what can be done to save the plant, though responsibility for economic regeneration will remain with the trade and industry department until July.
Both Mr Byers and Mr Livingstone described their meeting as constructive.
The mayor also held talks yesterday with London assembly members he was hoping to draw into his coalition administration, amid signs of disagreement in the GLA Labour group and between Downing Street and Labour's Millbank headquarters about how far to co-operate.
The discussions were described by one member of Mr Livingstone's team as "extremely sensitive" and last night only one assembly member had accepted a job in his cabinet: Darren Johnson, the Green party's former mayoral candidate, who has taken the environment portfolio.
Mr Johnson immediately threw the mayoral administration's weight behind the campaign to stop the building of a controversial leisure complex in Crystal Palace park, south London.
But Liberal Democrat Lord Tope yesterday turned down an offer to become chairman of the fire and emergency planning authority, saying the job did not "accord with our priorities", which were equalities and social justice.
Labour GLA member Lord Harris, who Mr Livingstone wanted to chair the new Metropolitan police committee, complained that he first heard about the proposal through the media, and Tory Bob Neill said the offer of a "non-portfolio role" smacked of tokenism.
The Labour group was meeting last night to consider how far to co-operate with Mr Livingstone, who has offered the post of deputy to Labour's Nicky Gavron.
