Harrow Police are expected to retain their borough commander after plans for a potential merger with Barnet were shelved.

Navin Shah, Harrow and Brent’s London Assembly member, received a letter from Boris Johnson reassuring him that there are no plans to merge the Borough Command Units.

In the letter the mayor said: “Please be reassured that there is no such Mayor’s Office for Police and Crime plan.

“These were emerging options being considered by the MPS as part of their preparation for a new Local Policing Model.

“Senior officers in the MPS had been seeking the views of selected stakeholders on one of those options, but they were not agreed or signed off by me.”

Speculation has been rife since Harrow’s borough commander, Chief Superintendent Dal Babu, revealed last month that the merger was being considered.

The letter from London’s mayor comes in response to a letter from Mr Shah who wrote to Mr Johnson expressing his concerns about the proposed merger.

Mr Shah said: “It would appear that we’ve managed to save Harrow from losing its own borough commander but the Mayor’s reply to my letter is heavily guarded.

“The question is, if the Mayor and Deputy Mayor were so opposed to any merger plans, why didn’t MOPAC know about this and why did MOPAC continue consulting across London causing anxiety?

“I was told personally about the plans to merge by our own borough commander Dal Babu. Why didn’t senior police officers, like the borough commanders in Harrow and Barnet know about this?

“Now the Mayor seems to be dismissing any plans for merger but until the Mayor and his team give a decisive direction that there will be no mergers of borough commands concerns across London will remain.”