Metropolitan Police chief Sir Ian Blair may have hung onto his job yesterday, after apologising to the Attorney General for secretly taping their calls. But, asks Lindsay Jennings, how much longer can he keep it?

WHEN he stepped up from his role as deputy commissioner, Sir Ian Blair was considered to be the pc PC. He was New Labour's favourite policeman. He loved Tennyson and Yeats and read English at Christchurch, Oxford, where, among his contemporaries, was a young lad called Tony with whom he shared a surname. Sir Ian didn't know the future Prime Minister at university but revealed in an interview once that they shared a similar style.

"I never had a pair of purple loons, but I did have very long hair," he admitted.

His decision to become a policeman was fuelled by rebellion against his father who wanted him to become a doctor. His decision paid off because he enjoyed a swift rise in his career.

He started by pounding the streets of London's Soho in 1974. Eleven years later, as a detective chief inspector, he took charge of the CID at Kentish Town in north London.

After that, his career path appeared to be paved with gold. Highlights included making a major contribution to the way that police investigated rape in 1985, after publishing his book Investigating Rape: A New Approach for Police, and heading up Operation Gallery at the Met - then the largest inquiry into police corruption in London for a decade.

In 1998 he was announced as chief constable of Surrey Police and returned to the Met in May 2000 as deputy commissioner, Sir John Stevens' right hand man. He quickly gained a reputation for providing solutions to complex problems involving budgets and logistics. But he wasn't considered a "copper's cop" in the way that Sir John was, with critics describing his career as "mostly management consultancy".

Then, 13 months ago, came the job he had long coveted and first applied for four years previously. Sir Ian secured the £225,000-a-year job as Metropolitan Police commissioner, post September 11 when the country was on a high terrorist alert.

He seemed to know what he was getting into.

"You don't come into here without a pair of copper-bottomed trousers," he told journalists. "This is a very tough place."

Even before taking up his appointment as commissioner, Sir Ian was known for his tendency for political correctness. In 2003, as deputy commissioner, he withdrew a ban on off-duty gay and lesbian police officers wearing their uniforms while marching on gay pride parades, in an attempt to recruit more homosexual members for the force.

One of the first jobs Sir Ian undertook as commissioner was to change the Met's logo at a cost of thousands of pounds - because the old one featured joined up writing which "discriminated against short-sighted people".

He had only been in the job a few months when he found himself mired in controversy, and found out just how tough the job could get.

On July 22, when the country was on high alert following the July 7 terrorist attacks in London, 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes was shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder at Stockwell Tube Station. The shooting came the day after a second series of alleged attempted bombings.

At a press conference on the day of Mr de Menezes' death, Sir Ian said: "The information I have available is that this shooting is directly linked to the ongoing and expanding anti-terrorist operation... I understand the man was challenged and refused to obey."

The news was confusing in the hours after Mr de Menezes' death. He was wearing a padded jacket, reported some, which could have concealed bombs. In addition, he had vaulted the ticket barrier in an attempt to escape his police pursuers.

But it soon emerged that the reports were far from the truth when witness statements from the investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) were leaked to ITN. They suggested that Mr de Menezes had not been challenged, did not sprint for the platform and had not vaulted the barrier. He had simply emerged from a flat which had been under police surveillance and had walked into the station at a normal pace, even pausing to pick up a free newspaper. He had, in fact, been wearing a thin denim shirt under which it would have been impossible to conceal a bomb.

Today, Sir Ian is still under pressure over why the Brazilian was gunned down and how he responded to the shooting. Questions have been asked about what he knew and when, while it has also been claimed he tried to block an IPCC investigation into Mr de Menezes' death. The IPCC is also conducting an investigation into the allegations that Sir Ian misled the de Menezes family and the public.

But any controversy around him was not to end there. Less than six months later came the Soham comments. He caused a furore when he said that "almost nobody" understood why the Soham murders - the killing of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman - had become the biggest story in Britain at the time. He added that the media was led by "institutional racism" in deciding which murders received coverage.

Sir Ian was forced to apologise "unreservedly" to the parents of Holly and Jessica. But it did not still his critics. Tory MP Rob Wilson called for him to be sacked, claiming he was neglecting crime fighting for a "thoughtless pursuit of self publicity".

His close links with the Government were also questioned when he became involved with other police chiefs in lobbying MPs over the vote on holding terror suspects for 90 days without charge. His backing for the proposals sparked a debate about the police being involved in politics. David Maclean, the Conservative chief whip, described that campaign as "blatant political lobbying" and called for an investigation.

But his second public apology in just over 12 months came yesterday, after Sir Ian admitted recording a telephone conversation he had had with the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith.

The taped conversation took place last September at his offices at New Scotland Yard. Sir Ian said he wanted a record of the call because they would be discussing a complex issue - the admissibility of wire tap evidence in court - and he had no note-taker. He also admitted taping calls with senior officials from the IPCC investigating Mr de Menezes' death. The existence of the recordings emerged as part of the investigation.

Yesterday, Tony Blair's spokesman, Home Secretary Charles Clarke, and Lord Goldsmith, who has accepted Sir Ian's apology, said they felt the matter was "now closed". But the future position of Sir Ian as commissioner of the Met is far from closed. Questions still remain, such as why did he choose to make the recordings in secret?

Len Duvall, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority which has the power to require the commissioner to retire or resign, said last night it was ''wholly unacceptable'' for Sir Ian to record private telephone conversations. But he said they had been given assurances by the commissioner that ''it would never happen again''.

At least, it appeared that he had not done anything legally wrong by making the recordings, according to the Home Office.

A spokeswoman said that under the Act it was not unlawful to record a personal telephone conversation without the consent of the other party if the recording was for one's personal use, and it was not to be passed on to a third party.

But just how long Sir Ian will remain as commissioner will continue to be debated, and the heat will certainly be on him when the report into the death of Mr de Menezes is published.

He has admitted before that he considered resigning in the wake of the de Menezes shooting, but does it mean he will go quietly when the time comes? If he is asked to resign or retire reluctantly , the commissioner may become very un-pc indeed.