The situation threatening to force Sir Ian Blair out of Scotland Yard is one that horrifies senior police officers. It is not that Sir Ian is massively popular or commands huge loyalty. What appals them is that the most senior policing position has become a political football, and one that is taking a hefty kicking.

The Tory administratioyn at City Hall regards getting rid of Sir Ian as a key objective. It sees him as a Labour appointment, someone who was close to Tony Blair and Ken Livingstone, and therefore fair game.

For Sir Ian, the current state of affairs is a personal disaster. The core business of the Met, fighting crime, is proceeding pretty successfully, despite reservations about the accuracy of the statistics and a spate of teenage murders.

But many senior officers believe that he has damaged the police service by being too close to one political party. Some of his actions – particularly lobbying for the Government’s 90-day terrorist detention proposals in 2005 – politicised Scotland Yard in a way that had never happened before.

Sir Ian has shown remarkable resilience and has spoken of himself as “a limpet”. This time, however, he faces three crises at once: race discrimination claims; an investigation into the award of consultancy contracts; and next month’s inquest into the shooting dead of Jean Charles de Menezes. With his political enemies plotting and his political friends wavering, he might not be able to hang on.

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