How Boris copped it from Sir Ian Blair

New details have come to light over the spat between Boris Johnson and former Met chief Sir Ian Blair, on the day the London Mayor tries to pick a new top cop for the capital.

As you may recall, Blair quit last year saying he could no longer continue in the post “without the support of the mayor”.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was among the raft of people who accused Boris of having forced Blair out. She said he was playing “party politics”, but Boris denied any notions of a political coup.

Yet today Boris and Jacqui – presumably sitting at different ends of the table, metaphorically if not physically – are interviewing the final two candidates in the race to succeed Blair.

Under Freedom of Information laws we have copies of letters between Blair and Johnson; which make for very interesting reading.

“Offensive” and “outrageous” are just some of the colourful language which was used as the pair rowed behind the scenes.