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Former London mayor Ken Livingstone has refused to appear before the Forensic Audit Panel chaired by former Sunday Telegraph editor-Patience Wheatcroft which is investigating allegations of misspending during his tenure.

The former mayor replied to the invitation that, although he was happy to work with any ‘genuinely independent body’, he considered Wheatcroft's audit panel neither objective nor independent, The Evening Standard reports.

Livingstone also said in his reply that there was a conflict of interest with the panel's fifth member Andrew Grove, a partner at accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, which has been awarded work by the panel.

In the panel's interim report, released last month, Wheatcroft said there had been a culture where spending was encouraged and political interference common. Her full report is expected to be released today.

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