Sacked Met chief Sir Ian Blair gets £3,000 a week - for life

The Scotland Yard commissioner, who was forced out by Mayor Boris Johnson, will pick up the equivalent of £3,076 a week from a "pension pot" worth about £3.5 million.

Details of the "golden parachute" were revealed in draft accounts for the Metropolitan Police, published today.

Sir Ian, 56, was also paid £580,000 during his final eight months in office, more than double his £240,000 salary.

Pressure group the Taxpayers' Alliance condemned the payments as "outrageous".

The accounts show that the Mayor and his deputy, Kit Malthouse, agreed to compensate Sir Ian in full for leaving his five-year contract 18 months early.

On top of buying him out, he was compensated for losing the use of a riverside Fulham flat and his official car.

But Sir Ian managed to hang on to both for months after quitting, increasing the controversy over the payout.

He is expected to receive a further substantial sum this year when his memoirs are finally published. Sir Ian collected £1,726 a day as he endured a tumultuous final period in office following the election of Mr Johnson.

The new Mayor eventually withheld his support, forcing Sir Ian to resign last October. Asked about the size of his payoff shortly before he stood down, Sir Ian said: "That is one for the lawyers."

Matthew Elliott of the Taxpayers' Alliance said: "Sir Ian Blair did such a bad job that he had to be forced out, so it is outrageous that he is walking away with a fortune."

Sir Ian's pension will be paid from next February, when he would have retired if he had completed his five-year tenure at the top of Scotland Yard.

Mr Malthouse said Sir Ian had got what he deserved. He added: "He has neither been rewarded not penalised."

Mr Johnson decided to remove Sir Ian following criticism of the shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes as well as allegations he was linked to a businessman who had been given £3 million of Met contracts.