LORD STEVENS, the former Metropolitan police chief, has launched an outspoken attack on cabinet minister David Blunkett in revenge for what he believes was a backstabbing campaign against him.

Stevens claims in his autobiography that Blunkett, now work and pensions secretary, held an “anti-police” stance during his three years as home secretary and secretly briefed journalists to get him sacked.

In his book, Not For the Faint-Hearted: My Life Fighting Crime, Stevens, who retired in January, says the best advice he received about Blunkett was: “Be wary of him — and never go to see him alone. Always take a witness.” He failed to heed the advice and paid the price with leaked stories condemning him.

Stevens, who also reveals an Al-Qaeda plot to assassinate Tony Blair and his wife, writes of reports following one meeting during Blunkett’s anti-briefing campaign: “I didn’t know where this story came from. There were only three of us in that office — myself, the home secretary and his dog. And it didn’t come from the dog.”

He adds: “Police chiefs should have good working relationships with the home secretary. For years I had absolutely no problems with Michael Howard nor with Jack Straw. Then, in the form of David Blunkett, there came along a new home secretary who knew very little about policing. Many officers felt he took office ready armed with an anti-police agenda.”

Stevens writes that his relationship with Blunkett, already strained by his perception that the home secretary took an aggressive attitude towards police reforms, was derailed following the September 11 terrorist attacks.

Blunkett and Stevens fell out after a meeting of Cobra — the government’s national emergency committee. “Tony Blair ran the meeting superbly. But when Mr Blunkett raised doubts as to whether the Association of Chief Police Officers could deal with terrorism, I became quite vigorous in saying it could.

“The anti-terrorist branch was one part of the organisation that really did work. I immediately wondered whether I should have given such a forthright reply but two members of the cabinet came up afterwards and said, ‘Well done.’

However, soon afterwards a tabloid headline blasted Stevens claiming: “Blunkett gives top copper a roasting”. “The report claimed the home secretary had called me in and rebuked me for warning the public that Britain could be the next target for a terrorist attack. But I had not been called in.”

Stevens says other reports emanating from the home secretary against him appeared in the London Evening Standard.

Relations reached their lowest point in February 2003 when Blunkett attacked Stevens for terrifying the public after he sent “tanks” to defend Heathrow airport after a tip-off that terrorists might try to down a airliner with missiles.

“In fact the vehicles were light armoured cars, and it was David Veness, then head of the Met’s specialist operations branch, who had ordered their deployment.”

Blunkett said in a statement last night: “Sir John was an excellent commissioner. I wish him well in seeking to sell his book and take great comfort from the fact that our work together dramatically improved the policing of London.”

The plot to kill the Blairs was uncovered during electronic surveillance by the security services, according to Stevens. A sniper was to have shot the couple as they mingled with dignitaries in the Mall during the Queen’s jubilee parade in 2002.

Stevens says both the prime minister and his wife Cherie refused to wear bulletproof vests. Scores of police officers were deployed to surround the couple and to scan the crowds. Stevens, whose book is serialised in today’s News of the World, believes the operation was successful in putting off the sniper.

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