Mayor backs Met chief
The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone, has given his backing to the beleaguered head of the Metropolitan police.
His comments follow support for Sir Ian Blair from the government earlier this week with the prime minister, deputy prime minister and home secretary all offering backing him.
Sir Ian has been under mounting pressure since documents from the independent investigation into the shooting of a Brazilian man on July 22nd, which cast new light on events leading up to his death, were leaked to the press.
But Mr Livingstone told Today: “He not only has my confidence. He is the best news that London policing has got.”
“He will put in place changes that mean it is less likely that something like this will happen again.”
Mr Livingstone said that he believed most Londoners understood the police officer or officers who shot the 27-year old Brazilian, Jean Charles de Menezes, had to “make a split second decision” and that he or they “got it wrong.”
“Mistakes like this happen when people are under incredible pressure and we have the archaic nonsense based on the decision to save money 15 years ago that the police radio system doesn’t work underground.”
But he also suggested that “disgruntled” police officers had sought to undermine the Met chief, and he called on them to stop damaging leaks of the details of the Independent Police Complaints Commission’ (IPCC) investigation.
“Bear in mind that this is a radical and reforming commissioner,” with “many enemies” who would not want to see major changes to the force, the mayor said.
Mr de Menezes was shot by police at Stockwell tube station the day after several failed bomb attempts on July 22nd when he was mistaken for one of the bombing suspects.
On Tuesday Brazilian officials, who had flown into London to oversee the investigation, said they did not believe there was a Scotland Yard cover-up.
