Outgoing Metropolitan police chief Paul Stephenson today said he resigned to prevent continuing damaging speculation over his role in the phone-hacking scandal in the run-up to the London Olympics next year.
Sir Paul told the Commons Home Affairs that he was saddened about having to leave but he took the decision to go because they were in “extraordinary times”.
“We have got a very short period of run-up to the Olympics,” he said.
“It seems to me - and it was a very sad decision for me - but in the run-up to the Olympics if there are going to be continuing speculation around the position of the commissioner and stories continue to distract, then if I was going to do something then I had to do it speedily.”
Appearing in full uniform, Sir Paul said he had received the full support of home secretary Theresa May and London Mayor Boris Johnson before resigning.
Sir Paul said he realised he would have to go when it emerged that former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallis had links to a health spa, where he had received free accommodation and board following an operation to remove a tumour.
Sir Paul denied he had been "impugning" Prime Minister David Cameron in his resignation statement, when he suggested his employment of Mr Wallis as a media adviser was less controversial than former News of the World editor Andy Coulson's appointment as Downing Street communications chief.
He pointed out Mr Wallis had not left his job in connection with hacking. “I had no reason to doubt Mr Wallis’s integrity. I had no reason to associate him with hacking."
Sir Paul said he regrets that his deputy John Yates has resigned as a result of the phone-hacking scandal. He said the department will need to change the way it handles interactions with the media and make them more transparent.
He was subjected to over an hour of intensive questions about his relationship with Mr Wallis, his acceptance of a free spa break and his force's failure to reopen inquiries more swiftly into allegations that hacking was widespread.
John Yates said he had offered to brief Mr Cameron about police protocol over a "scoping" exercise he was carrying out in September 2010 on whether to re-open the hacking probe.
However, he said Mr Cameron's Chief of Staff Ed Llewellyn had asked him in an email exchange not to bring the matter up in discussions he was due to have with the prime minister, saying he did not think it would be appropriate.
"Officials will always try and protect their principals. Ed for whatever reason, and I completely understand it, didn't think it was appropriate," he told the committee.
Mr Yates also told the committee he did not think the police should take the most blame for past failures on phone hacking and that News International executives were the real culprits because of their failure to cooperate.
"I yesterday said I was accountable. I do think it's time for others to face up to their responsibilities and do likewise," he said.
Asked who he meant, he said: "News International," adding when pressed over whether there should be more resignations: "It's a matter for them."
Detectives are now not only re-examining allegations of phone hacking at the News of the World but also looking at allegations that police officers took bribes from journalists in return for information.
"A very small number of police officers will go to prison for corruption," Mr Yates said.
Agencies