SIR IAN BLAIR, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, tried to delay an independent inquiry into the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes hours after his death.

Sir Ian claimed that an inquiry by the Independent Police Complaints Commission would impede the police’s counter-terrorist investigations.

But Scotland Yard’s attempt was rejected by the Home Office, which told Sir Ian that it would be illegal and destroy the credibility of the IPCC.

The details emerged as a bitter row grew between the commissioner and Nick Hardwick, the head of the IPCC, over the leaks from the inquiry’s interim report on Tuesday.

The Times has learnt that Sir Ian has written to Mr Hardwick demanding that a police force from outside London should be called in to investigate how material highly damaging to Scotland Yard reached ITV.

Police sources say they are certain that the material has come from IPCC files. A leaked pathology report was prepared after the IPCC opened its inquiry and police computer experts say that the documents, given to ITV News, were produced on computers that the Yard does not use.

As a result of the leaks the IPCC said that it would brief the de Menezes family lawyers on their findings so far today.

The leaked file, which includes statements and photographs, shows a “series of catastrophic errors”. One of the surveillance team, a seconded soldier, was meant to establish whether the man leaving the block of flats which was being watched was a suspect in the 21/7 London bombings. But he was relieving himself as Mr de Menezes left and could not identify him. His statement to the inquiry read: “At this time I was not able to transmit my observations and switch on the video camera at the same time. There is therefore no video footage of this male.”

Fresh material shown last night also revealed that police had been tailing a car that had allegedly been spotted at a terror training camp in the Cambrian Mountains in Wales. It was registered to the address in South London where Mr de Menezes lived.

When the surveillance operation began one officer, codenamed Hotel Three, asked for permission to detain Mr de Menezes before he reached the station but this was refused.

The papers show there were three surveillance officers in the carriage at Stockwell station where the Brazilian sat down seconds before he was killed. One had to hold the doors open with his foot to let a team of marksmen in and point out Mr de Menezes.

Yesterday Scotland Yard confirmed that Sir Ian wrote to Sir John Gieve, the Permanent Secretary at the Home Office, asking for a “review” of the position of the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which has the legal responsibility to scrutinise police shootings.

The statement said that Sir Ian wanted to “clarify the role of the IPCC if, as it then appeared, the shooting at Stockwell Tube station involved a suicide bomber. This was because it was crucial that the terrorist investigation took precedence over any IPCC investigation at that time.”

The police knew that the IPCC had a duty to brief the dead man’s family and feared that sensitive information would be passed on. Detectives also felt the IPCC investigators, who include former police, were not experienced enough.

But, according to police sources, the Metropolitan Police Authority, which was briefed, did not agree. Senior officials wrote their own letter to the Home Office and are said to have argued that the IPCC would be aware of the sensitivities. One source said: “They felt that working together would allay some of these fears.”

At the Home Office officials consulted lawyers and then told Scotland Yard there was no way that the IPCC could be excluded. One Whitehall source told The Times: “It would have been catastrophic. It would have completely destroyed the IPCC in one go.”

After talks, a file including 100 statements and 200 documents already gathered by Scotland Yard was handed over to the IPCC. It started work on July 25. The man in charge is John Cummins, a former senior Cambridgeshire detective, who investigated Scotland Yard’s failures over the death of Michael Menson in a race attack in North London.

Within hours of the broadcast by ITV of the leaks, Sir Ian Blair sent Steve House, one of his assistant commissioners, to the Central London headquarters of CO19, the firearms group.

Mr House offered the officers Scotland Yard’s support and registered its anger that the inquiry had been leaked before it was complete. One officer said yesterday: “They are fine but they are not very impressed with the leaking.”

Sir Ian and his commanders remain acutely aware that officers could still hand in their firearms authorisations if they feel they risk being made into scapegoats. With London on a high state of alert the Yard cannot afford to lose any armed officers and Sir Ian has already said that he wants to recruit several hundred more.

With their burly build, casual clothes and powerful cars, the officers who make up the 80-strong specialist firearms unit could be mistaken for underworld hardmen. Teams have been based at headquarters for the past six weeks. They have been on call 24 hours a day, sometimes bedding down in sleeping bags and buying new clothing locally.

The officers are chosen for the special duties after proving themselves as ordinary marksmen and then working as a member of an armed response team. They then undergo new training, including working with the SAS, and attend frequent refresher courses.

They learn abseiling, streetcraft, high-speed driving skills, close-combat and siege tactics. They carry a cutdown version of the Heckler & Koch carbine and a Glock automatic.

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