Sadiq Khan forced Cressida Dick out of her job as Metropolitan Police chief. Both made that very clear this evening, with Dick saying ‘the mayor no longer has sufficient confidence in my leadership to continue’, while Khan said he was ‘not satisfied with the Commissioner’s response’ to his ultimatum for changing the Met’s culture of misogyny, racism, homophobia and bullying.
The Met is clearly an institutional basket case
The Mayor of London has played a political blinder on this. Unlike Home Secretary Priti Patel, who has the ultimate authority on the appointment — and exit — of the Commissioner, he has been quick to respond to last week’s report which revealed appalling messages exchanged by some officers at the Charing Cross station. He has been increasingly noisy in his challenges to Dick to change the culture in the force after a string of scandals, and has made it clear that he was the one putting her on notice, not Patel. And today he did not inform the Home Secretary before pulling plug on Dick, just hours after the Commissioner insisted she had ‘absolutely’ no intention of going. Even though Khan doesn’t have the power to remove her, the Home Secretary (who does) has already made clear through Home Office sources that if the Mayor no longer had confidence in Dick, her position is untenable.
The government is in an extremely awkward position over the Met, not least because the force is investigating a number of senior figures, not least the Prime Minister. But it was Patel who — reluctantly — extended Dick’s contract for another two years under pressure from Downing Street. It was widely briefed at the time that no one in government was happy with the quality of candidates to replace her.
Even though the Met is clearly an institutional basket case, it is such a prestigious organisation that there will always be someone senior willing to take on the Commissioner role. The challenges facing that person are enormous, and not just in terms of addressing the immediate cultural problems in the force. How can officers police by consent when women, people from ethnic minorities and gay men all have recent cases to vindicate a distrust of the Met? Changing cultures takes years, as well as enormous changes to recruitment, training and disciplinary processes.
Whoever takes over will need to be in it for the long haul, while also having the ability to convince a lot of people — especially those who aren’t powerful and are just fearful for their safety — that change is still happening rapidly.
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