Blair: I won't stand down

Sir Ian Blair has said he intends to remain in his job as Metropolitan Police commissioner amid mounting pressure for him to resign over the fatalshooting of Jean Charles de Menezes.

The police chief was speaking as an official report was released into the events surrounding the death of de Menezes at Stockwell Underground station two years ago.

He expressed his regret for the incidents of July 2005 and acknowledged that "some mistakes or miscommunications by different individuals led to a disastrous result".

But he said he would remain in his post because "by the very nature of its task, the history of the Metropolitan Police Service is littered with controversial events".

"I don't need to repeat a litany of them now but every commissioner has such events on his watch," he said.

Sir Ian pointed to improvements "in a number of key areas" picked up in the Independent Police Complaints Commission report.

He said those particularly relate to "armed operations, communications, surveillance and Operation Kratos, the policy for dealing with deadly and determined attackers".

"I am clear that two-and-a-half years after the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, the Met has significantly improved many of its procedures to deal with life-threatening incidents," the police chief said.

Criticism

In a report published on Thursday, the IPCC made 16 recommendations on how operations could be improved.

IPCC chairman Nick Hardwick refused to speculate on Sir Ian's future but said the police chief was responsible for "much of the avoidable difficulty" in the events following the shooting.

Poor communication between police officers and the commissioner's attempts to delay the IPCC inquiry were among the failings highlighted in the report.

This was described as an issue "of major concern" and something that "should never occur again".

"The commissioner attempted to prevent us carrying out an investigation," Hardwick added.

"In my view, much of the avoidable difficulty the Stockwell incident has caused the Metropolitan Police arose from the delay in referral."

The report highlighted failings including a lack of a contingency plan in dealing with a suspected suicide bomber on public transport.

It rejected charges of gross negligence against commissioner Cressida Dick, who led the operation.

However, it did point to police failures in taking advantage of available time to identify whether de Menezes was a terror suspect.

Lessons learnt?

Ministers have been defending Sir Ian and rejecting calls for him to stand down since the Metropolitan Police was found guilty of breaking health and safety laws in the shooting.

And home secretary Jacqui Smith reiterated that the force and its commissioner retained her "full confidence".

"The Metropolitan Police commissioner and the Metropolitan Police remain in the forefront of the fight against crime and terrorism," she said.

"They have my full confidence and our thanks and support in the difficult job that they do."

However, the Conservatives stepped up their calls for Sir Ian to stand down, again describing his position as "untenable".

Shadow home secretary David Davis said the IPCC report "confirms clear, systemic failings in the operation leading up to the events on 22 July, 2005".

"Because of this, along with the need to restore public confidence and improve public safety, Sir Ian Blair's position remains untenable," he said.

"As for learning from these failures, the report criticises Sir Ian Blair's attempts to stop the IPCC investigating this tragic event. Had he succeeded these failures might not all have been identified, let alone learned from."