Tories call for commissioner to be fired

METROPOLITAN Police Commissioner Ian Blair was under mounting pressure yesterday as the Tories urged Home Secretary Jacqui Smith to fire him.

The demand came as he continued to defy calls to quit after his force was found guilty of serious failures leading to the death of innocent Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes.

Ms Smith backed Mr Blair, insisting he retained her full confidence, while Mayor of London Ken Livingstone attacked the “irresponsible politicians” urging the commissioner’s resignation. But shadow home secretary David Davis upped the ante with a letter to the Home Secretary asking her to reconsider her support for Mr Blair “in the interests of public safety and confidence”.

“We now need the right leadership, at every level, in order to restore public confidence... I put it to you, in the strongest terms, that the most important and immediate action that the Home Secretary can and should take, in these circumstances, is to replace Ian Blair with a commissioner who can command the force’s confidence, restore the public’s trust and protect the nation’s security,” he said.

The force was fined £175,000 (€251,600) and ordered to pay £385,000 (€554,000) costs on Thursday, after being convicted by an Old Bailey jury of exposing the public to risk.

The trial heard there was a “catastrophic” series of 19 key failures in police procedure which led to Mr de Menezes being shot by armed officers on a train at Stockwell Tube station on July 22, 2005.

He was suspected at the time of being one of the terrorists responsible for the failed suicide bomb attacks on the London transport network the day before.