MPS Deputy Commissioner Paul Stephenson has issued the following statement in response to an article in today's Evening Standard: 

I am saddened and concerned by many of the comments in today's paper about both Sir Ian Blair and the distorted impression it gives of the management of the MPS. 

The article appears to be based on ill-founded comment and speculation, some of it from people who are clearly not privy to the true facts. I do not intend to respond to every point but there are a number of key issues that I cannot allow to go uncorrected. 

Sir Ian has never accused me of being disloyal and we have certainly not been on a 'virtual war-footing for months' as is claimed. To suggest otherwise is nonsense and we continue to enjoy a very strong working relationship. 

The Safer Neighbourhoods policing programme is a flagship that the MPS, fully supported by the Metropolitan Police Authority and the Mayor, has been rolled out under Sir Ian's leadership. To claim we have 'quarrelled' about what is undoubtedly one of the Met's biggest successes in recent years is simply not true. The fact is that under Sir Ian's commissionership every neighbourhood has a dedicated local policing team and crime is at a ten year low.