The Home Secretary, Priti Patel, has said the new Metropolitan Commissioner must tackle policing culture and conduct.
After a release in the Evening Standard, Priti Patel said “strong and decisive new leadership will be required to restore public confidence”.
Soon to leave office, Dame Cressida, said she had been left with “no choice” but to resign, after London’s Mayor made it clear to her he had no confidence in her leadership.
It follows cases of sexism and misogyny among some Metropolitan Police officers.
Last week, the police watchdog found “disgraceful” examples of bullying and sexual harassment at Charing Cross police station.
Dame Cressida, the first woman to lead the biggest UK police force, also faced criticism over the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving Metropolitan officer last year, and a series of other scandals.
Beyond the ambits of London, the Metropolitan Chief is also responsible for national counter-terrorism policing, and Ms. Patel said the Metropolitan Commissioner “is a national leader, with a critical national role”.
Following these happenings, the Home Secretary has clashed with the Labour Mayor over Dame Cressida’s resignation.
Home Office sources said they were “astounded” that Mr. Khan’s previous comment that Dame Cressida had “days and weeks” to sort out the Metropolitan turned into “less than 48 hours”.
Dame Cressida is thought to have offered her resignation after declining to meet Mr. Khan to discuss her plans for reforming the Met, but reports suggest he did not inform Priti Patel about the meeting.
She said she had “agreed to stay for a short period to ensure the stability of the Met”.
Her successor will be appointed by the Home Secretary, in consultation with the Mayor of London. Contenders include Matt Jukes and Neil Basu, who are both assistant Met Commissioners, with later potentials, Andy Cooke and Simon Byrne
Prime Ministers have no formal role in appointing the Commissioner, but Boris Johnson has nevertheless been given head-up to stay out of the process entirely because of the ongoing Metropolitan investigation into lockdown parties at No.10 Downing Street.
Former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson on the other hand, said “we should be casting the net as wide as possible” to find the best candidate for the role, including outside policing.
Ms. Patel said the new commissioner must be “focused on the basics”, including tackling the abuse of women and girls, drugs and knife crime.
“Policing culture and conduct have rightly come under scrutiny. Be in no doubt that a new leader must tackle these institutional issues.”
Home Secretary, Priti Patel
But a former Chief Constable for Greater Manchester Police, Sir Peter Fahy, said the idea that replacing one commissioner would change policing culture was “naive”.
According to Sir Fahy, Dame Cressida’s resignation would be “a blow” to female officers who saw her as a role model, and this could put people off applying for senior positions later to come.
Chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, Ken Marsh, representing the rank and file officers in London, said Dame Cressida had been unfairly treated and the association had believed “she was the person who could take us through this”.
Dame Cressida, speaking in an interview, before her departure was announced, insisted that she had “absolutely no intention” of quitting and that she was “seething angry” about the culture at Charing Cross, which was exposed by the police watchdog.
But Mr. Khan said he was “not satisfied” with Dame Cressida’s response to the scale of change required to “root out” racism, sexism, homophobia, bullying and misogyny in the Metropolitan Police.
The Met had submitted a plan to Mr. Khan last Friday on reforming the force and a meeting was due to be held on Thursday, February 10, 2022.
A City Hall source said Mr Khan made it clear through his officials, but not directly to the commissioner, that the plan was not going to work, leading to the cancellation of the meeting.
Susan Hall, leader of the Greater London Assembly Conservatives, said Mr. Khan had handled the situation “extremely badly”.
According to Hall, the resignation of Cressida made Londoners less safe and left a “void” at the top of the Met.
Dame Cressida, who served in the role for almost five years and was recently given a two-year contract extension, said in a statement: “The murder of Sarah Everard and many other awful cases recently have, I know, damaged confidence in this fantastic police service.”
She added: “There is much to do – and I know that the Met has turned its full attention to rebuilding public trust and confidence.”
Harvey Proctor, a former MP falsely accused of murder during a disastrous probe into claims of a VIP paedophile ring, said her departure had come not a “day too soon” and called for a full inquiry into all her “personal mistakes”.
The partner of a man who was murdered by serial killer Stephen Port said the resignation was “about time” and that Dame Cressida was not capable of dealing with the homophobia, sexism and racism within the Met.
Ricky Waumsley previously called for her to quit after an inquest jury found police failures had likely contributed to the death of his partner Daniel Whitworth and two more of Port’s victims.
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