Top story: Partygate could be hot potato for successor
Good morning – Warren Murray bringing you the last but certainly not least consequential briefing of the week.
Cressida Dick has been forced out as head of the Metropolitan police after London’s mayor accused her of failing to deal with a culture of misogyny and racism in Britain’s biggest force. Sadiq Khan had previously put Dick “on notice” that she had to rapidly reform Scotland Yard or lose his support for her leadership. His confidence in her was shaken to breaking point by a scandal at Charing Cross police station where officers shared racist, sexist, misogynistic and Islamophobic messages.
Dick is currently responsible for the “partygate” investigation, which could decide the fate of Boris Johnson as prime minister. As Peter Walker points out, if the investigation lingers beyond her tenure, it will be the hottest of political potatoes to pass to a successor. Here are some of the possible contenders. Dick will stay in her role for what is described as “a short period” while a new commissioner is appointed.
A number of MPs called for Dick to resign in March 2021 after her officers arrested women taking part in a vigil for Sarah Everard, who had been murdered by one of their colleagues. In September the home secretary, Priti Patel, announced she had extended Dick’s five-year term for another 24 months, being unconvinced that any prospective successors were ready. Dick began as a constable in 1983 and became Met commissioner in 2017. Her career in the senior ranks has been battered by several controversies, including the notorious killing of Jean Charles de Menezes by police who thought he was a suicide bomber.
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‘Warning time is going down’ – Boris Johnson said he feared Europe stood “on the edge of a precipice” as some experts declared Russia has assembled an invasion-ready force on the borders of Ukraine. After meeting Johnson, Nato’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said: “The number of Russian forces is going up. The warning time for a possible attack is going down.” The UK foreign secretary, Liz Truss, held frosty discussions with her counterpart in Moscow and announced further sanctions legislation. Sergei Lavrov said it was a conversation of “the mute with the deaf”. Truss challenged Lavrov over his assertion that Russia is not threatening anyone: “I can’t see any other reason for having 100,000 troops stationed on the border,” she said.
Keir Starmer also visited Nato’s headquarters and said Labour “is standing by the UK government’s approach”, but accused ministers of not doing enough to tackle Russian “dirty money” flowing into the UK. Starmer rebuked Britain’s Stop the War Coalition, which has Jeremy Corbyn in its leadership, as “naive” and giving “succour to authoritarian leaders who directly threaten democracies”. Overnight, Joe Biden has warned that “things could go crazy quickly” in Ukraine and urged American citizens to leave immediately. In Berlin last night, Russia and Ukraine said they had failed to reach any breakthrough in talks involving French and German officials. The UK’s defence secretary, Ben Wallace, is due to continue the diplomatic round in Moscow today.
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Net zero critics in small digits – MPs not fully behind net zero are “a small minority” and the government should stay committed to its climate crisis goals, a cross-party group of parliamentarians has said. It comes after the Guardian reported on the Net Zero Scrutiny Group (NZSG) of 19 Conservatives, accused of attempting to derail the government’s green agenda. The chairs of eight all-party parliamentary groups, including on climate change, net zero, clean air and fuel poverty, have written a letter to the Guardian vowing they will “continue to support and promote ambitious environmental leadership in parliament”.
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Women’s audit at Holyrood – It will be “really disappointing” if the Scottish parliament cannot attract more female politicians within the next five years, says Holyrood’s presiding officer, as she launches a women’s audit to investigate barriers to representation and participation.
Alison Johnstone, the equivalent of the Commons speaker, has suggested political parties are falling short in selecting female candidates, and signalled that the hybrid working arrangements used during lockdown and which suited working women in particular could become permanent. Last May’s elections returned the most diverse MSP group ever – 58 women, making up 45% of the parliament. But three female MSPs stood down, citing the difficulties of managing family life and their role. The audit will be led by a cross-party board of MSPs and academics.
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Better sleep may cut dementia – Researchers in the US have shed light on why Alzheimer’s disease is linked to people having experienced sleep disturbances years beforehand. The disease is related to plaques and tangles of proteins that steadily build up in the brain. Immune cells called microglia seek out and destroy these proteins. Dr Jennifer Hurley, who led the research at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York, has described how microglia work on a circadian rhythm which, if disturbed, hampers their work. “Good sleep hygiene” could therefore help to tackle Alzheimer’s. Hurley said it might also be possible to stimulate the clean-up with simple interventions such as exposure to light, or more sophisticated therapies that boost activity of immune cells.
Today in Focus podcast: The persecution of witches
They were accused of sorcery but they were just ordinary women. Libby Brooks reports on a Scottish campaign to pardon those persecuted in witch trials 300 years ago.
Lunchtime read: 50 gigs that changed music
Five decades after David Bowie’s seminal tour, our music writers reflect on the concerts that have left a mark, from Billie Holiday to Billie Eilish.
Sport
At the Winter Olympics, the Great Britain women’s team is starting off against the Republic of Korea. The Team GB men have lost out to the USA in their curling match. Laura Deas was running outside medal contention earlier in the women’s skeleton. Ayumu Hirano has clinched gold for Japan in the men’s snowboard halfpipe, where USA’s Shaun White, the three-time Olympic champion, fell on his last run before retirement and finished off the podium. Keep up with the action at our live blog. The 15-year-old Russian skater Kamila Valieva tested positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine in a sample collected on Christmas Day, the Independent Testing Agency has confirmed.
The sample was analysed by a Swedish laboratory only on Tuesday 8 February, after she led her team to gold in figure-skating. It is still unclear whether the team will lose their medal or if Valieva will be allowed to compete further.
In the Premier League, a Diogo Jota double sank goalless Leicester to maintain Liverpool’s title pursuit. Gabriel Martinelli’s first-half tap-in against Wolves was enough to secure Arsenal’s first win in six games, only for him to be sent off in the second half. Scotland have followed the Springboks’ lead and changed their entire front row for their Six Nations clash against Wales; while the odds on what was shaping up to be the most evenly poised match of this Six Nations took a sudden lurch after the Ireland captain, Johnny Sexton, was ruled out of Saturday’s game against France with a hamstring strain. The Aston Martin drivers Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll have criticised Formula One for putting entertainment before the sport at last season’s controversial and decisive Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. The drivers accused the FIA and F1 of poor judgment in the decision-making that cost Lewis Hamilton the title.
Business
The continued rise in US inflation and the threat of more interest rates rises by the US Federal Reserve to combat soaring prices has put markets on edge in Asia overnight. The FTSE100 looks like slipping around 0.4% this morning as a result while the pound is on $1.354 and €1.188. But it’s not just the US where prices are going up, as our writers report here.
The papers
The departure of Cressida Dick as Britain’s most senior police officer is the main story in most of the papers on Friday – we have a separate roundup and a summary follows. The Guardian leads with “Met police chief forced out over toxic culture failings”. The Times says “Scramble for new Met chief after Dick quits” and reports that her resignation had “blindsided” the home secretary, Priti Patel, who has to find a replacement. The Telegraph’s main story says “Cressida Dick forced out as head of the Met”
The Mail’s splash headline is: “Calamity Cressida fired – but what took so long?”. The Express leads with “Fears grow for Queen as Charles gets Covid”, but it has a picture of Dick on its front page and says “Scandal hit Yard chief Cressida Dick FINALLY quits”. The i goes with the line that Dick had announced her intention to stay earlier on Thursday, only to realise Khan was not going to back her: “Defiant Met chief forced out of Yard”.
The Metro leads with “Cressida ditched” while the Yorkshire Post has “Dick quits as Metropolitan police chief”. The Mirror leads on “Queen Covid scare” but has a small story on its front and the headline “Top cop Dick forced out”. Ditto the Sun, which leads on the royals but has a secondary story on the Met chief: “Dick axed for scandal at Met”. The FT’s main front-page picture is the outgoing police chief and the headline “Dick forced to quit after report into sexism and racism at Met”. Its main story is “Johnson looks for investment ‘big bang’ with regulatory deal”.
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