Big Times piece on Brian Paddick, in the running to be LibDem London Mayoral candidate

The Times has a big piece on Brian Paddick, covering the confirmation that he has put his name forward as a candidate for the nomination as LibDem candidate for London Mayor.

The Times confirms that Paddick has been a LibDem supporter and carries praise for him from Lynne Featherstone:

Liberal Democrat sources said that Mr Paddick had been a party supporter “for some time”, but had not been able to join until he left the Metropolitan Police.

Lynne Featherstone, the Lib Dem MP for Hornsey & Wood Green, described him as an impressive candidate. “Brian is the one officer I met who I believe really understands and gives weight to some of the problems that are contentious,” she said on her blog. She praised him for his “avant-garde” approach to cannabis when he was commander in Lambeth and his “evidence to the stop-and-search scrutiny and subsequent work on that”.

The Times also reminds us that the ICC report on the Jean Charles de Menezes shooting, vindicated Paddick:

The report published on Thursday on the aftermath of Mr de Menezes’s death by the Independent Police Complaints Commission confirmed Mr Paddick’s account that close aides of Sir Ian, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, knew within hours of rumours that police had shot the wrong man.