Ian Blair

The Right Honourable The Lord Blair of Boughton QPM
Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis
In office 1 January 2005 – 1 December 2008
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Tony Blair Gordon Brown
Deputy	Sir Paul Stephenson
Preceded by	Sir John Stevens
Succeeded by	Sir Paul Stephenson
Deputy Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis
In office 2000–2005
Leader	Sir John Stevens
Preceded by	Sir John Stevens
Succeeded by	Sir Paul Stephenson
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal
Incumbent
Assumed office 20 July 2010 Life peerage
Personal details
Born	Ian Warwick Blair (1953-03-19) 19 March 1953 (age 71) Chester, Cheshire, England
Political party	None (crossbencher)
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford
Profession	Speaker, writer and consultant on strategic policing, leadership and security Police officer (1974–2008)

Ian Warwick Blair, Baron Blair of Boughton, QPM (born 19 March 1953) is a British retired policeman who held the position of Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis from 2005 to 2008 and was the highest-ranking officer within the Metropolitan Police Service.

He joined the Metropolitan Police in 1974 under a graduate scheme, and served 10 years in London. As deputy chief constable of Thames Valley Police, he handled the protests over the construction of the Newbury bypass, and then became chief constable of Surrey Police, before being appointed deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, and then commissioner in January 2005. His term of office saw the mistaken shooting of an innocent man, Jean Charles de Menezes, which resulted in contradictory police reports, and his comments on race caused some controversy among ethnic-minority police officers.

In October 2008 he announced that he would step down from the post in December after disagreements with Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London.^[1][2] Blair was appointed as a crossbench life peer in July 2010.