Orde tipped for London police job

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/northern_ireland/7649348.stm

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PSNI Chief Constable Sir Hugh Orde is one of those being tipped as a possible candidate for the job of London's top police officer.

Sir Hugh has not ruled himself out as the new Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service.

He pointed out, however, that he had two years of his contract with the PSNI left to run, and he would "wait and see what happens".

The speculation follows the resignation of Met chief Sir Ian Blair on Thursday.

Challenging

Sir Hugh told the BBC he "had no plans to move at the moment".

"On my seventh year as chief of Northern Ireland, it is a fairly busy and fairly challenging job," he said.

"I'm not convinced that anyone who has done this would actually be prepared to move on and do another five years in such a challenging role."

Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, announced his resignation at a news conference, blaming pressure from the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson.

He said he had hoped to stay on until the end of his term of office in February 2010.

He was resigning, he said, not because of any failures by his service or pressures of the office but "because he could not continue without the support of Mr Johnson".