Met chief doing a fine job - Blair

Press Association
Jun. 13, 2006

Britain's most senior police officer was given the Prime Minister's personal backing after further fall-out from the east London anti-terror raid and the Stockwell shooting led to fresh calls for him to quit.

Sir Ian Blair's future as head of the Metropolitan Police was called into question yet again over the weekend, but Tony Blair said he was doing a "fine job" and that he retained his full confidence.

The beleaguered Commissioner was given further top-level backing from London Mayor Ken Livingstone, the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) and the chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA). But despite this, one MPA member said it was now time for Sir Ian to go, and claimed a "large number" of his fellow authority members thought the same.

Pressure on the Commissioner, who has been criticised for a string of embarrassing gaffes, intensified on Friday night after the two brothers arrested in the Forest Gate raid were released without charge. Around 250 demonstrators gathered outside Scotland Yard to protest against the operation on Sunday, while reports suggested the two brothers could each claim hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation.

Sir Ian was dealt a further blow after an apparent leak from the police watchdog's report into the fatal shooting of the innocent Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes revealed a catalogue of police blunders.

The News of the World also reported that officers close to the case knew they had got the wrong man at a point when Sir Ian was still briefing the press that the shooting was directly linked to a series of alleged attempted suicide bombings in the capital the previous day.

Some commentators speculated on Sunday that Sir Ian had finally lost ministerial backing when policing minister Tony McNulty said he was "entirely safe" for now, but refused to be drawn on his long-term future as Commissioner. But Mr Blair laid that to rest when he said: "I retain complete confidence in Sir Ian Blair as the Metropolitan Police Commissioner and, more than that, I retain complete confidence in our police and our security services in tackling the terrorist threat that we face.

"That threat is real. We know it is real because it has killed innocent people in this country. And in my view, if I can say this in relation to what happened in Forest Gate, if our police were not acting on such information, then we would have the right to complain."

The Prime Minister added: "This is not the moment to question either our Police Commissioner or the police or the security services, who in my judgment are doing a fine job in protecting this country."

However, MPA member Damian Hockney insisted Sir Ian's position was "not tenable", saying: "The Met needs inspired and courageous leadership and, with the best will in the world, Sir Ian cannot provide it. Tony Blair and the Home Secretary can say he is safe, but all that leads to is the perception of a lame duck commissioner."