Ken settles for £80,000 after hopes of £250,000 book deal

Ken Livingstone was paid £80,000 for his autobiography despite his literary agent saying that he would only consider opening offers of £250,000.

Mr Livingstone was paid the advance by publishing house Faber & Faber for his new book, You Can't Say That.

Following his defeat in the 2008 mayoral election, Mr Livingstone employed Jonathan Lloyd from literary agency Curtis Brown, who said at the time that several publishers were interested in the memoirs and that he would regard £250,000 as an "interesting opening offer".

Mr Livingstone's advance is relatively modest in comparison to other recent political memoirs.

Peter Mandelson reportedly earned £500,000 for his autobiography.

And Tony Blair was said to have received an advance of £4.6 million for his memoirs, A Journey. Mr Blair gave the proceeds from the book to the Royal British Legion.