Axeman Boris feels force.

LONDON Mayor Boris Johnson came under fire today over the I axing of Met Police Chief Sir Ian Blair. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith launched the attack as Britain's most senior police officer said he could not continue without the support of the mayor, who used his first day in power as Metropolitan Police Authority chairman to force his resignation.

On BBC's Question Time, Ms Smith said: "There's a process in place that the mayor chose not to respect.

"What is important when you are both choosing and when you're supporting somebody that you're asking to do a job like that is that you keep party politics out of it. You need to work alongside people and, frankly, you should put some time and effort into that. The mayor said on the first day in his job he didn't feel he had confidence in Sir Ian and that's why he took the decision to resign."

But Brian Paddick, a former deputy assistant commissioner in the Met, said Ms Smith was also instrumental in Sir Ian's departure. He said: "It is actually only the Home Secretary that could force the commissioner to leave and therefore the Home Secretary could have turned round and said to Ian Blair and to the mayor 'I'm sorry, you don't have the power, mayor, to do that. I want the commissioner to stay'."

Ms Smith told Question Time she did not feel "it would be right to persuade him, against what he had decided to do, to stay".

Sir Ian announced his resignation yesterday saying: "I am resigning in the best interests of the people of London and of the Metropolitan Police Service."

Mr Johnson said: "There comes a time in any organisation when it becomes clear it would benefit from new leadership."

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UNDER FIRE: London Mayor Boris Johnson earlier this year with Sir Ian Blair