One of Britain's most senior police officers was today poised to formally lodge a highly damaging race claim against Scotland Yard.

Scotland Yard assistant commissioner Tarique Ghaffur was set to start the process of taking his boss, Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, to an industrial tribunal claiming he is the victim of race discrimination.

The move comes after a tense stand-off between the two since Mr Ghaffur told friends in June that he was bringing the case.

His claim will allege the commissioner had a "golden circle" of favoured officers, all of them white, and froze out Mr Ghaffur. The legal papers are also expected to contain other damaging allegations, including that Sir Ian was involved in the loans-for-peerages investigation, despite publicly saying he played no part in it.

Mr Ghaffur is also to allege that he was wrongly spied on during an investigation into the conduct of another senior Asian officer, Ali Dizaei, who was then a superintendent suspected of corruption. Mr Dizaei was later cleared and promoted, while receiving a compensation payment for being wrongly prosecuted.

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