His father spent most of his career working for Lever Brothers, eventually rising to manage the dock at Port Sunlight in Merseyside.
His mother was from Sheffield and her father had made a living as a steel merchant until he suffered major losses in the Great Depression in the 1930s.
[13] Several months into his tenure, Jean Charles de Menezes was shot and killed by armed police who mistakenly believed he was a suicide bomber.
On 2 August 2007 the IPCC announced its findings that the allegations against Blair could not be substantiated, instead placing the blame for misleading the public on Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman, who had failed to report his suspicions that an innocent man had been killed, and had released contradictory statements to the press.
[17] On 28 March 2006, Paddick accepted a statement from the Metropolitan Police that it "did not intend to imply" a senior officer had misled the probe into the shooting and that "any misunderstanding is regretted".
[18] In June 2006, a leaked copy of the Independent Police Complaints Commission report sparked further criticism and calls to quit.
[19] On 1 November 2007, a jury convicted the Metropolitan Police of violating health and safety laws, highlighting 19 "catastrophic errors" but said it was an "isolated breach under quite extraordinary circumstances".
[21] In 2005–06 Blair was involved in Operation Finnean, a £280,000 investigation into supermodel Kate Moss's alleged possession and distribution of a Class A drug.
It has been alleged that the operation was systematically sabotaged by officers eager to undermine Blair and Tarique Ghaffur's high-profile stance on celebrity drug taking, and thereby erode their authority.
[22] In 2007 Blair was criticised by senior colleagues at New Scotland Yard after he sought a £25,000 performance bonus during criminal proceedings over the shooting of de Menezes,[23] while on a salary of £228,000 and with rank-and-file officers facing the prospect of pay cuts.
[28] The commissioner denied any wrongdoing and said that he was "open and straightforward in informing both the Metropolitan Police Service and the MPA about [his] relationship [with Miller]".
In October 2008 it was reported that Blair had used public money to pay an estimated £15,000 to Impact Plus, owned by his friend of over 30 years, Andy Miller.
[35] In another case, the country's most senior Asian police officer Tarique Ghaffur was considering commencing an employment tribunal over being sidelined by Blair in Olympics security planning, and being asked to keep quiet about his concerns about the new 42 days detention laws for terror suspects.
[36] In a subsequent press conference, Ghaffur claimed that in a face-to-face meeting with Blair, the latter threatened to remove him from his post if he went ahead with his legal action.
Blair received an unprecedented written warning from his bosses,[38] but the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority, while describing his actions as "totally unacceptable", said it was not a resigning matter.
Blair was criticised when 78 police officers were involved in an operation to confiscate placards displayed by protester Brian Haw.
[47] In 2006, in comments to the The Times, Blair claimed that the London Borough of Haringey was a safe enough place to leave doors unlocked.
He believed one was the "bandit car" and another may have been a taxi, but Blair and his sergeant were not able to keep up "because we were driving a Hillman Hunter which has a top speed of 25mph minus".
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and Prime Minister Gordon Brown paid tribute to Blair's service.
[58] In 2010, Blair served on the Commission on Assisted Dying run by Demos, subsequently speaking in favour of changing the law.
[59] In the same year, along with Roma Hooper, Paul McDowell, Dame Anne Owers, Javed Khan, John Thornhill and Peter Oborne, he formed an investigative panel which led the year-long Community or Custody National Enquiry[60] investigating the effectiveness of community sentencing over short-term prison sentences for low-level offences.