Britain's most senior policeman has questioned plans to allow foreign police chiefs to run Scotland Yard, because of its role in fighting inter-national terrorism.

Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe spoke out as the Government plans to change the law so foreigners can apply for British police jobs — and as the former head of the New York police department, Bill Bratton, said he wanted to succeed him in the top post of Met commissioner.

He said he understood why Mr Bratton would want such an “incredible” job, but declared there was no vacancy at present, saying: “Unless somebody tells me otherwise, I have the job.” Sir Bernard, speaking after a lecture at Liverpool University on the future of the terrorist threat, said he was unsympathetic to the idea of foreigners running police forces when they had responsibility for counter-terrorism.

He said: “We don’t allow that for other jobs. The national security interest means we would not recruit the prime minister, head of security services or head of the army from another country. The police service is part of the greater national security infrastructure.”

He also told how he wanted to see the Met retain control of its national counter-terrorism role. The Government is considering moving counter-terrorism investigations from Scotland Yard to the new National Crime Agency.

Sir Bernard questioned why anything should be altered when the present system was working well.

He told The Guardian: “What is the problem we are trying to remedy? Over many years we have not had terrorist attacks because the security services and police have worked well together, so we can’t say we have failed. So why change our present structure? If there was clear evidence we had failed we’d have to change but there isn’t.”

The commissioner said the new crime agency could be overwhelmed by the addition of terrorist responsibilities which might “cause it to fail” before it had a change to establish itself.

He also announced that he has called in an external force to review the Yard’s criminal investigation into the so-called “Plebgate” saga.

A team from the Greater Manchester force will review the Met’s internal probe into claims of a police conspiracy over allegations by officers in Downing Street that ex-Chief Whip Andrew Mitchell swore and called them plebs.