Sir Ian Blair’s memoirs – Policing Controversy – are due to be published shortly.

Blair was the police commissioner Boris Johnson forced out. Johnson has never given a coherent or adequate explanation of the reasons for Blair’s removal.

Perhaps this is connected to the fact that on the key issue of crime, the Met was delivering – Blair was presiding over a period of significantly falling crime. And over several years, first with Sir John Stevens and then throughout Blair’s period as Commissioner, the Met switched over to a revival of real local policing, with Safer Neighbourhood teams in every single electoral ward in London. This was achieved with the full support of the then mayor, Ken Livingstone, who supplied the financial resources necessary to increase police numbers to record levels and get the police back into London’s neighbourhoods.

It will be interesting to see whether Sir Ian Blair has anything to say about what he thinks of Boris Johnson and the circumstances of how he was forced out.