Having temporarily parked his campaign to crash the housing market, Sadiq Khan was hauled in front of a City Hall hearing this afternoon to defend himself over the sacking of Met Commissioner Cressida Dick. The first time a sitting mayor has ever been formally summonsed…

Perhaps uncomfortably, Sadiq Khan was sat directly beside Tom Winsor, the man who authored the 116-page report that found he had failed to follow due process over Dick’s removal. Khan insisted the report was “biased”, and accused Winsor of deliberately ignoring “facts” owing to his alleged friendship with Dick herself:

The view of me and others is that the process is flawed, the investigation is biased, it ignored many facts. We all know, it is a matter of public record, Sir Tom’s close association with the former commissioner. We all know Sir Tom’s close association with former Home Secretaries…”

Winsor himself wasn’t about to sit there and take it. Pointing both barrels at Sadiq, he blasted back:

“The idea that the facts have been ignored is absurd, particularly because, at a late stage in the process, the mayor’s office provided me with detailed factual material which caused me to revise my report in a number of material respects.”

Winsor also accused Sadiq of a “political ambush” over the sacking. No love lost…