Blunkett threatens action

Legal action will be launched against Humberside Police Authority if it fails to suspend beleaguered chief constable David Westwood, Home Secretary David Blunkett said today.

Mr Blunkett insisted that he would begin the legal action "at the earliest opportunity".

It came after the police authority put itself on a collision course with the Home Secretary by defying his order to suspend Mr Westwood, instead urging Mr Blunkett to reconsider his demand.

Mr Blunkett said in a statement: "In the absence of any new arguments I have decided to maintain my decision and I now call upon the authority to comply with the law and suspend Mr Westwood.

"If they do not I will be taking the necessary legal steps at the earliest opportunity at the beginning of next week to require them to do so."

Mr Blunkett said he made his original decision to order the suspension after "extensive deliberation" following publication of Sir Michael Bichard's report police intelligence failings in the Soham child murder case.

The Home Secretary pointed out that his instructions to the police authority had been made under a procedure agreed by the Home Office with the Association of Chief Police Officers, the Association of Police Authorities and the Chief Police Officers' Staff Association.

"Having gone through the detailed process and having weighed the facts very carefully I decided that the enormity of the evidence provided in Sir Michael's report, and in particular the issue of systemic and corporate responsibility, warranted the initiation of these powers," he said.

"I should emphasise that I have not required the police authority to sack Mr Westwood.

"Mr Westwood will have every opportunity to make representations in the course of this process."

Following a two-hour meeting at the authority's headquarters in Hull today, police authority chairman Councillor Colin Inglis asked the Home Secretary to "reconsider his decision".

Mr Inglis, who is leader of Labour-controlled Hull City Council, said: "By a majority of 12 votes to five, the Police Authority has agreed the following resolution: That the Home Secretary be asked to reconsider his decision to require Humberside Police Authority to suspend the Chief Constable, Mr David Westwood."

Another member of the authority, councillor John Neal, said the committee had been asked to back the resolution proposed by the chairman, which he said flew in the face of legal advice.

Mr Neal said: "We are in the wrong, as I see it.

"My personal view is that we should have taken cognisance of what we were required to do by the law, by the Home Secretary and that advice has been totally ignored."

He said the meeting was not acrimonious but he agreed that the decision taken today was "extraordinary".