BRITAIN:The London Assembly passed a vote of no confidence in Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair yesterday.
The vote came on the eve of today's Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) report on the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes. However, Mr Blair won renewed backing from home secretary Jacqui Smith and a ringing endorsement from London mayor Ken Livingstone, who said the vote was a sign of the assembly's "impotence" and "cynicism".
Tories and Lib Dems combined to carry the motion by 15 votes to eight, following last week's jury finding that the Met had put public safety at risk through failures in the actions leading to Mr de Menezes' death at Stockwell Underground station.
Conservative leader in the assembly Richard Barnes said these were "corporate failures on a gigantic scale" and that "the buck" had to stop with "the boss . . . the commissioner". An innocent man had died, said Mr Barnes, and "someone has to be held responsible; someone has to be held accountable".
The sponsors of yesterday's non-binding motion are obviously hoping it will build pressure ahead of a meeting next week of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA), which has the power to sack Mr Blair. Critics of his stewardship of the metropolitan police are also predicting that ministers may rethink their support for the commissioner in light of today's IPCC report. However Sir Ian has already read that report and appears confident he will survive any move against him at the MPA. Indeed Mr Livingstone told BBC Radio 4's PM programme that the Tories and Lib Dems had carried their vote in the assembly knowing that "it won't carry at the MPA".
Earlier, Mr Livingstone described Mr Blair as the "outstanding policeman of his generation". He insisted that he and the home secretary would continue to support the commissioner.
Ms Smith yesterday insisted the government had not yet decided on the period it would seek beyond the 28-day limit for questioning terror suspects. She said no case had arisen in which police needed more than 28 days, but insisted government had to anticipate a situation where a suspect would have to be released because police had run out of time.