Pressure grows on London Police Commissioner

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair insisted he would not resign today after members of the London Assembly passed a vote of no confidence in him.

He appeared before the Assembly to answer questions about the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes.

British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith issued a fresh call for politicians to give Blair their backing.

She told Conservative and Liberal Democrat politicians who are calling for the Commissioner's resignation that they could not know the pressures police were under on July 22 2005, in the wake of the terror attacks on London's Tube network.

Conservatives on the London Assembly want to use Wednesday's annual emergency services review meeting to stage a vote that would force chairwoman Sally Hamwee to write to Ms Smith expressing lack of confidence in Blair.

Blair told the gathering that this was "a matter entirely for you". And he added: "What is a matter for me is getting on with my job and what I am going to do is continue to reform, to improve and sustain the Met for the rest of my contract."

Calls for Blair's resignation were sparked by last week's Old Bailey verdict that the Met was guilty of health and safety breaches in relation to Mr de Menezes' death.

Brazilian electrician Mr de Menezes was shot dead by Metropolitan Police firearms officers on a Tube train at Stockwell after being mistaken for a suspect in the attempted suicide bombings of the previous day.

Blair told the Assembly that on every occasion he has discussed the incident publicly, he had apologised for the killing.

He said: "That is not a formula. That is actually a very personal issue that lies with me, lies with the other officers involved that day, lies with the command team, lies with the men who shot him. It is a very personal issue that this is a matter of the deepest regret."