This blog is now closing. Thanks for following along on the evening that Cressida Dick stepped down as commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
You can keep across all the latest news as it happens on The Guardian home page here.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan did not inform home secretary Priti Patel of his intention to request a meeting with Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick, the PA news agency has reported tonight.
According to Home Office sources, Patel was not impressed by this and thought it was “rude and unprofessional”.
Patel will oversee the appointment of the new commissioner and more details on how she will set about searching for a replacement are expected to be confirmed in due course.
Director of the Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ) charity, Harriet Wistrich, has said there were “far too many stories of officers accused of violence and abuse still in their jobs and of whistle-blowers victimised instead of listened too” following Cressida Dick’s resignation tonight.
“Cressida Dick’s response to these series of stories has been wholly inadequate and her description of Wayne Couzens as a ‘wrong un’ meaningless next to the mounting evidence of multiple allegations of abuse and policing failures to tackle violence against women and racism,” she said.
Ms Wistrich added that Dame Cressida “rose to the top of the Met, only to preside over an institution where misogynists, racists and homophobes can hold on to their jobs when they are meant to be tackling crime”.
She said:
The problem with Cressida as the first female to rise to the top of the most difficult job in policing, is that in order to do so she had to put loyalty to her officers above all else.
Any future leader of the Met must be able to listen to victims and be prepared to tackle the culture of misogyny and racism that pervades the underbelly of Met policing.
In the meantime, Centre for Women’s Justice will continue in our judicial review bid to ensure that the inquiry announced by the Home Secretary into failings associated with the murder of Sarah Everard, is put onto a statutory footing and broadened in scope to ensure it can identify systemic failings and recommend meaningful institutional change.
Chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council Martin Hewitt has paid tribute to Cressida Dick’s time at the Met’s commissioner.
He said:
Dame Cressida Dick cares deeply about the people of London and the Met’s mission to keep Londoners safe.
We owe her a debt of gratitude for her four decades of dedicated service and huge contribution to policing and public service.
Alastair Morgan, who has spent decades campaigning for justice for his brother Daniel, who was killed with an axe in a pub car park in Sydenham, south-east London in the 1980s, said Dame Cressida Dick has “disappointed” his family on every level.
Speaking to the PA news agency, he said:
The first time I dealt with Cressida Dick was in 2012 and since then all she has done in relation to my family is just delay, obstruct and disappoint on a huge level.
Although I think it is a shame that we are seeing another commissioner disappear under a cloud of smoke, it is necessary.
My only anxiety now is who is going to replace her and face the massive job in front of them of rebuilding confidence in the Met.
Some more reaction from Labour on Cressida Dick’s decision to step down as commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
The shadow foreign secretary David Lammy has called for “structural change” at the Met.
He tweeted:
@SadiqKhan’s right. The Met needs cultural change to root out the discrimination that still exists.
The cases of misconduct that have been revealed recently have been deeply disturbing. Only new leadership can rebuild public confidence in the police in London and elsewhere.
I thank Cressida Dick for her service in a force which helped protect me on Monday night - and has helped to counter terrorism and violence in the capital I’ve called home my whole life.
.@SadiqKhan’s right. The Met needs cultural change to root out the discrimination that still exists.
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) February 10, 2022
The cases of misconduct that have been revealed recently have been deeply disturbing. Only new leadership can rebuild public confidence in the police in London and elsewhere.
I thank Cressida Dick for her service in a force which helped protect me on Monday night - and has helped to counter terrorism and violence in the capital I’ve called home my whole life.
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) February 10, 2022
Meanwhile, the Brent Central MP Dawn Butler said Dick’s replacement “must be committed to serious reform and building trust back”.
I said Cressida Dick had to go.
— Dawn Butler MP✊🏾💙 (@DawnButlerBrent) February 10, 2022
I’m now pleased @MayorofLondon has accepted her resignation.
The replacement must be committed to serious reform and building trust back into the Met.
I set out what change was needed here 👇🏾(1/2)https://t.co/Jhw0sx3eTT
Updated
Who might replace Cressida Dick as Metropolitan Police commissioner?
The Guardian’s Vikram Dodd has taken a look at the likely candidates to lead Britain’s biggest police force after Dick’s resignation.
Dame Cressida Dick’s ousting from office against her will means no Met commissioner has left office having completed their full time in office since 2005.
The crises her tenure has seen, concerns over her style, will reignite debate about how governable the Met is.
John Stevens completed his full term as Met commissioner in 2005. His term as commissioner saw the Met struggle to respond to the hammer blow findings it was institutionally racist from the Macpherson report into why Stephen Lawrence’s racist killers escaped justice for so long.
After that, Ian Blair was ousted in 2008, in similar fashion to Dick. The then London mayor, Boris Johnson, declared he had lost confidence and Blair felt he had to resign.
His deputy, Paul Stephenson became commissioner only for the force to spectacularly misjudge the phone hacking scandal. He resigned in 2011.
When Bernard Hogan-Howe became commissioner with the force reeling from phone hacking and the 2011 riots, one question was whether the force was manageable. He saw out his original five year contract, but went part way through an extension, dogged by criticism over the bungled Met hunt for a VIP paedophile ring. The investigation was launched on the word of a lying fantasist, who was later jailed.
Dick, commissioner from 2017, saw her five year contract expire in April this year. She was granted a two year extension in September. It remains unclear how long she will stay in post while a new commissioner is found.
Yvette Cooper calls for police reforms following Dick resignation
Labour’s shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper has said in a statement that she supports Sadiq Khan’s calls for reforms in the Met.
She said:
The Mayor of London is right to insist on reforms to the Metropolitan Police and he has shown leadership in addressing this.
I thank Cressida Dick for her many years of public service including her work on counter-terrorism and tackling violence in the capital.
Reforms are needed to rebuild public confidence in the Metropolitan Police after recent cases.
Every day the police do incredibly important work, in London and across the country to keep us all safe and trust in that good work must not be undermined by cultural failures or delays in tackling officers who abuse their positions.
This isn’t just an issue for London - the Home Secretary must support reforms to raise standards across the country to support the essential work the police do.
The Green party’s London Assembly member Caroline Russell hasn’t held back in her criticism of Dick’s time as Met commissioner, accusing her of leaving behind a legacy of “racist policing” and presiding over a culture of “racism, misogyny, homophobia and discrimination”.
She commented:
The Commissioner has overseen a stream of appalling scandals, from disproportionate racist policing to the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer and the defensive handling of the aftermath of the vigil in Everard’s name.
Over the Commissioner’s time as head of the Metropolitan Police, there were countless moments that should have prompted honest admissions of failure and real reform. Yet her tenure was marked by complacency and defensiveness over a culture of racism, misogyny, homophobia and discrimination. Black Londoners have been telling us for years about the impact of disproportionality in policing.
We need reform of the Metropolitan Police that goes much deeper than changing the Commissioner. Discriminatory behaviour is institutionalised in the police. We need fundamental reform to establish a police force that Londoners can trust and that re-establishes the basics of policing by consent so good officers want to stay in the force and the ones who are behaving in this racist, misogynist, discriminatory way should be made to leave.
The decision to oust Dick, the first female Met commissioner since the force was founded in 1829 was welcomed by a leading women’s charity.
Ruth Davison, head of Refuge said:
Cressida Dick presided over an institution that saw police officers displaying misogynistic behaviour and committing horrific acts of violence against women, time and time again.
But one resignation at the top doesn’t mean the police have solved their misogyny problem. The police service in this country needs root and branch reform - as Refuge has repeatedly called for.
The Met is an institution that is supposed to uphold the law and protect women and girls from violence and abuse. It’s no wonder women do not feel confident to report crimes committed against them with the Met’s track record. Strong action must be taken by the new Commissioner to rebuild this trust.
The former home secretary Sajid Javid has thanked Cressida Dick “for her service”, saying she has held “one of the most difficult jobs in the country”
One of the most difficult jobs in the country. Thank you Cressida for your public service. https://t.co/6aeno5ymdl
— Sajid Javid (@sajidjavid) February 10, 2022
The deputy assistant commissioner of the Met, Bas Javid, is Sajid Javid’s brother.
Some analysis on Cressida Dick’s departure from the Guardian’s Peter Walker:
While Boris Johnson’s fate is ultimately in the hands of his own MPs, Cressida Dick will be excruciatingly aware that deciding that significant numbers inside No 10 broke the law, particularly if one of them is Johnson, could be the catalyst in pushing him out.
Dick is to stay in her role for what is described as “a short period” while a new commissioner is appointed. If that period includes a definitive verdict on the Met investigation into No 10 parties, it will be quite the parting shot; if the investigation lingers it will be the hottest of political potatoes to pass to a successor.
The paradox of this final task is that Dick will be helping adjudicate on the future of Johnson, a key supporter, who is known not to share Khan’s desire for a new head of the UK’s biggest and most high-profile police force.
Read the full piece here:
Watch Sadiq Khan’s statement on the departure of Cressida Dick as Met police commissioner
Watch: The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan on the departure of Cressida Dick as Met Police commissioner.
— BBC Radio London (@BBCRadioLondon) February 10, 2022
More from BBC News: https://t.co/zHJ5P5nrlO pic.twitter.com/KAKx6TBD3Z
Cressida Dick decided not to attend a “showdown” meeting with London mayor Sadiq Khan today at 4.30pm where the mayor was to insist she produce a new and compelling plan to rid the Met of an alleged toxic culture.
Khan had put her “on notice” that she had to rapidly reform Scotland Yard or lose his confidence in her leadership.
Ahead of the crunch meeting, the Commissioner decided she could do no more to reassure the mayor, and attending the meeting was pointless. She was aware the government would not step in to save her if she lost the mayor’s confidence.
Khan said: “Last week, I made clear to the Metropolitan police Commissioner the scale of the change I believe is urgently required to rebuild the trust and confidence of Londoners in the Met and to root out the racism, sexism, homophobia, bullying, discrimination and misogyny that still exists. I am not satisfied with the commissioner’s response. On being informed of this, Dame Cressida Dick has said she will be standing aside.”
The Home Office did not know in advance, with a mayoral source telling PA Media: “It was a Sadiq-led thing.”
Updated
Earlier today Dame Cressida Dick was defiant and used a phone-in show on BBC Radio London to make clear she had “absolutely no intention” of standing down. She denied she was “complacent” or “arrogant” and claimed she had transformed the Met police.
She said: “I have absolutely no intention of going and I believe that I am, and have been actually for the last five years, leading a real transformation in the Met.”
Dick also claimed in that interview that London mayor Sadiq Khan had expressed confidence in the Met just a few weeks ago and that she had been “laying down the law” to the force after a series of scandals - including, most recently, revelations of officers at Charing Cross police station sending a barrage of messages that were racist and Islamophobic, and bragged about violence toward women.
However, within hours of that interview she announced she would step down, admitting “it is clear that the Mayor no longer has sufficient confidence in my leadership to continue”.
Johnson: Dame Cressida 'served her country with great dedication'
Prime minister Boris Johnson has just tweeted thanking Cressida Dick for her service at the Met.
He wrote on Twitter:
Dame Cressida has served her country with great dedication and distinction over many decades.
I thank her for her role protecting the public and making our streets safer.
Dame Cressida has served her country with great dedication and distinction over many decades. I thank her for her role protecting the public and making our streets safer.
— Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) February 10, 2022
Boris Johnson 'must have no role' in choosing Dick’s successor - Lib Dems
Boris Johnson must “publicly recuse” himself from the decision to appoint Dame Cressida Dick’s successor because he is being investigated by the force, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said.
He said in a statement
Boris Johnson must have no role in choosing Cressida Dick’s successor to lead the Met. A man under criminal investigation by the Met should not be able to choose who’s in charge of it.
I would like to thank Cressida Dick for her years of dedicated police service, but a change of leadership in the Met is long overdue.
Met police officers who work incredibly hard and risk their lives to keep us safe deserve better. They urgently need new leadership that will change the culture and rebuild the public trust and confidence that officers need to do their jobs and keep us all safe.
No one handpicked by Boris Johnson would have the credibility needed for this big and important task. There must be no interference from Number 10 in the appointment and Boris Johnson should publicly recuse himself from this decision.
Boris Johnson must have no role in choosing Cressida Dick’s successor to lead the Met. A man under criminal investigation by the Met should not be able to choose who’s in charge of it.
— Ed Davey MP 🔶 🇬🇧 🇪🇺 (@EdwardJDavey) February 10, 2022
Ken Marsh, chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said officers were saddened at the news that commissioner Cressida Dick was leaving her role
He said:
This is of course a challenging time for the Metropolitan Police Service. But policing and police officers are an easy target for critics who have never spent a day in our shoes or dealt with the daily challenges we face.
Whilst the Federation did not always agree with Commissioner Cressida Dick, we think she was doing a good job in difficult circumstances. She genuinely cares about London, its citizens and, importantly from our perspective, her officers and their families.
Her removal leaves a void in the leadership of London and UK policing at what is a critical time. Cressida Dick should have been given the opportunity and the necessary time to build back trust in the Metropolitan Police Service. She has been denied that. She should have been treated better.
We will now, like all Londoners, await to see who politicians deem fit to lead the Metropolitan Police Service in 2022 and beyond. And to see who is willing to take up that challenge.
Following the news of Cressida Dick’s resignation, the home secretary Priti Patel has paid tribute to her time at the Met.
Patel in particular highlighted Dick’s work in “driving our national counter-terrorism capability” and the fact she was the first woman to hold the post.
She said:
I’d like to thank Dame Cressida for the nearly four decades of her life that she has devoted to serving the public, latterly as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
She would be the first to say that she has held the role during challenging times; yet for nearly five years she has undertaken her duties with a steadfast dedication to protecting our capital city and its people – including during the unprecedented period of the pandemic.
Leading the Met has also involved driving our national counter terrorism capability at a time of multiple threats while as the first woman to hold the post, she has exemplified the increasingly diverse nature of our police and demonstrated that all can aspire to hold leadership roles in policing in this country today.
Cressida Dick left with 'no choice' but to step aside after mayor of London loses confidence in her leadership
Cressida Dick has issued a statement via Scotland Yard, explaining the context of her resignation.
Here it is in full:
It is with huge sadness that following contact with the Mayor of London today, it is clear that the Mayor no longer has sufficient confidence in my leadership to continue. He has left me no choice but to step aside as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service. At his request, I have agreed to stay on for a short period to ensure the stability of the Met and its leadership while arrangements are made for a transition to a new Commissioner.
Undertaking this role as a servant of the people of London and the UK has been the greatest honour and privilege of my life. Throughout my career I have sought to protect the people of this wonderful thriving and diverse city.
There have been many tough calls. And many challenges. The 2017 terrorist attacks, the Grenfell fire, difficult protests, the pandemic, the murder of serving officers. I’m incredibly proud of my team and all they have achieved.
Since day one tackling violence in all its forms has been my number one priority. We continue to see teenagers murdered on our streets and every attack is a tragedy. But we are delivering and overall violence is down. The Met is bucking the national trend. We are achieving remarkable results in key areas of violence, with thousands of fewer victims of knife crime, robbery and other attacks.
I leave a Met that is growing and will soon record the largest ever number of officers. London is becoming safer. These great people include more women than ever in every rank and role and an increasing number from a broad range of ethnic backgrounds that truly reflect the diversity of London.
This Met is looking to the future and is ready for threats to come. Officers are better equipped and better informed as we take advantage of mobile and other technologies and forensic capabilities, and introduce better uniform and safety equipment.
We are delivering enormous transformational change, improving our systems and trialling innovative and state-of-the-art technology including live facial recognition and faster ways to capture and examine digital information. Our counter terrorism capability is world leading. Last year I was extremely proud to see the first phase of the Counter Terrorism Operations Centre bringing all agencies together in one place as we adapt to the evolving threat.
This is the Met where every hour of every day our people perform heroic acts to protect the public. We are more accountable, more transparent and more open than ever - with deeper links to our communities.
The murder of Sarah Everard and many other awful cases recently have, I know, damaged confidence in this fantastic police service. There is much to do - and I know that the Met has turned its full attention to rebuilding public trust and confidence. For that reason I am very optimistic about the future for the Met and for London.
Thank you to everyone in the Met and those who work with us for the extraordinary efforts you make each and every day. The public depend on you, for your professionalism, courage, compassion and integrity. You make a huge difference to people’s lives every day. I salute you.
Updated
Good evening. I’m Tom Ambrose and I’ll be bringing you all the latest news and reaction on Dame Cressida Dick standing down as commissioner of the Metropolitan police after a series of scandals.
The decision follows a public falling out with the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, who put her “on notice” that she had to rapidly reform the Met or lose his confidence in her leadership.
In a statement, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Last week, I made clear to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner the scale of the change I believe is urgently required to rebuild the trust and confidence of Londoners in the Met and to root out the racism, sexism, homophobia, bullying, discrimination and misogyny that still exists. I am not satisfied with the Commissioner’s response.
“On being informed of this, Dame Cressida Dick has said she will be standing aside. It’s clear that the only way to start to deliver the scale of the change required is to have new leadership right at the top of the Metropolitan Police.
“I would like to thank Dame Cressida Dick for her 40 years of dedicated public service, with the vast majority spent at the Met where she was the first woman to become Commissioner. In particular, I commend her for the recent work in helping us to bring down violent crime in London - although of course there is more to do.
“I want to put on the record again that there are thousands of incredibly brave and decent police officers at the Met who go above and beyond every day to help keep us safe, and we owe them a huge debt of gratitude.
“I will now work closely with the Home Secretary on the appointment of a new Commissioner so that we can move quickly to restore trust in the capital’s police service while keeping London safe.”
