Met chief is facing the axe before Christmas

Sir Ian Blair came out fighting today as it was revealed he faces being axed by Christmas if the Stockwell inquest rules that Jean Charles de Menezes was unlawfully killed.

The Met Commissioner made an extraordinary public statement to say he was "getting on with the job".

Speaking outside Scotland Yard he said: "As Mark Twain said after reading an account of his own death in the New York Journal: 'The report of my death is an exaggeration.'

"Same here. I have a job to do. I am getting on with it and will continue to do so."

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was also forced to defend the Commissioner, saying she had full confidence in him.

Sir Ian faces the possibility of being axed from his job by Christmas if the 12-week inquest - due to begin on 22 September - rules that the innocent Brazilian was killed as the result of an avoidable police failure.

Mr De Menezes was shot dead by police on a Tube train at Stockwell on 22 July 2005. The inquest is expected to reveal bitter divisions within the force about who was to blame and pose serious questions over the running of the police operation that led to his death.

If the killing is ruled to have been unlawful, senior Whitehall officials are understood to have drawn up a contingency plan to oust Sir Ian to halt growing turmoil in the Met. The plan - which includes the appointment of Sir Ian's deputy Sir Paul Stephenson as acting Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner John Yates, who led the cash-for-honours inquiry, as his No2 - surfaced in The Times.

But Sir Ian said today: "Most people are pleased to get a couple of letters published in The Times within their lifetime: to have two leaders written about oneself in a matter of weeks would normally be very flattering.

"However, newspapers do not always get everything right."

Sir Ian will be told formally in the next few weeks that his contract will not be extended beyond his five-year term, which expires in January 2010. The Metropolitan Police Authority is believed to be drawing up a letter this week notifying him of the ending of his contract and he was expected to be told personally that he will not get an extension.

However, senior members of the MPA, which is responsible for interviewing candidates and drawing up a shortlist for the post, denied The Times's claim that Sir Ian would be axed whatever the outcome of the Stockwell inquest.

A source said: "This sounds like a throwaway remark by someone. As far as I know there is no letter going out from the MPA. If this came from the Yard it's obviously someone in the frame for the job who wants to speed things up."

One senior MPA member said: "He is not exactly the man of the month at the moment but I am not aware of an immediate plot to oust him. What is interesting is that the power at the Yard has shifted towards Ian's deputy Paul Stephenson. The new Mayor's administration get on extremely well with Paul."

Sir Ian, 55, personally told colleagues today that he had not had any discussions about ending his contract, insisting: "I still have 18 months to go." But in the past he has made it clear that he wanted an extension to his contract so he could remain as Commissioner until the 2012 Olympics.

Support for the Met chief among senior officers and police officials has drifted with a series of controversies engulfing the Yard this summer.

Most recently, one of his most senior officers, Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, launched a race discrimination claim against the Met, accusing Sir Ian personally of bias.

Sir Ian's judgment was also called into serious question after it emerged that £ 3million of Scotland Yard contracts were awarded to his friend Andy Miller. An investigation into the Miller contracts by another senior police officer is ongoing.

The Association of Chief Police Officers today said Sir Ian had its support, adding: "He and his team need to be given the space to get on with the job of keeping London safe."