Downing Street Says » Sir Ian Blair

» Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Sir Ian Blair

Asked what the Prime Minister thought about reports that 114 senior police officers had lost confidence in Sir Ian Blair and what he thought about an early day motion calling for the Home Secretary to sack Sir Ian Blair, the PMOS suggested that it must only have been the shortage of space that had stopped the reporter from saying these were anonymous reports suggesting that. The Prime Minister had no wish in any way to intervene in any speculation surrounding the Independent Police Complaints Commission report (IPCC). The PMOS emphasised that most strongly. However the Prime Minister recognised that the job of Met Commissioner was not only a very important one but also a highly difficult one and the Prime Minister supported Sir Ian Blair in carrying out that job.

Asked if the Prime Minster had full confidence in Sir Ian Blair, the PMOS suggested that the phrase "full confidence, by tradition, only applied to Cabinet Ministers. Put to him that Sir John Stevens had managed to avoid the sort of blunders and scrapes that Sir Ian Blair found himself dealing with, the PMOS said that events were always different but he suspected that Sir John Stevens would disagree that he had not faced difficult times, just as any Met Commissioner faced challenging times. It was that kind of job. He did not want in any way to intervene in the IPCC report, but equally it was wrong for anybody to think that the Prime Minister in anyway was anything but fully understanding of the difficulties of the job of being Met Commissioner.

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