To serve as Met Commissioner requires the confidence of the Mayor, the Home Secretary and, of course, the public. Yesterday evening, following a conversation with Sadiq Khan, Dame Cressida drew the only conclusion she felt open to her — that this was no longer the case.
Her sudden announcement may have come as a shock, reversing on a commitment earlier in the day that she had “absolutely no intention of going”, but recent events prefigured her departure.
The Mayor had sown the seeds of her demise two days earlier, saying that she had “days or weeks” to convince him she was the right person to lead a much-needed clean-up of the force.
And the damning conclusions of last week’s Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) report into Charing Cross police station — which concluded the Met had a “disgraceful” culture of misogyny, racism, homophobia and bullying — showed the problem is deep-rooted.
Dame Cressida, the first woman to hold the role of Met Commissioner, can point to significant successes under her leadership. Overall violent crime, one of the most important metrics for any city, is down and so too is the number of young people being injured in stabbings.
However, it is impossible to resile from the fact that 2021 was the worst year on record when it comes to teenage homicides. The capital suffered 30 teen killings last year, surpassing an unwanted record set in 2008.
As London’s newspaper, we wanted Dame Cressida to succeed. But it has become increasingly clear that the Met’s rotten culture needs root and branch reform. Her response to the IOPC report was judged to be flat-footed. With two further inquiries yet to report their conclusions, it seemed a tall order for the Commissioner to complete her term.
Whoever succeeds her will face an enormous challenge. As we report only today, almost 150 Met officers have been accused of domestic violence against their spouse or partner in the last two years. Yet our investigation found that only eight per cent have been charged and some remain as working Met officers.
They will also have to walk a political tightrope over the Met’s handling of the Downing Street partygate affair, which it initially declined to investigate before U-turning. It has rightly been criticised and relations between City Hall and central Government are fractious.
There will be more difficult days ahead for the Met. Transforming a rotten culture starts from the top, but it is a mighty endeavour. Yet Londoners deserve nothing less. Our city needs a police force that not only keeps us safe, but reflects our values and is an institution we can be proud of.
Lighting up St Paul’s
For more than 1,400 years, a cathedral dedicated to St Paul has stood at the highest point in the City. Its world-famous dome structure, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, captured the capital’s defiance against aerial bombardment during the Second World War.
A proposed £2.1 million redevelopment project, which would see broken lamps replaced with new LED spotlights, would allow Londoners from every direction to bask in the brilliance of Wren’s creation for miles around.
As both a dedication to old London and a nod to its sparkling future, what better way to mark London’s rebirth.
