Yvette Cooper said policing was facing the “perfect storm”.
Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary voiced her concerns with policing when she sat down to give an interview to BBC One’s Sunday Morning programme with Sophie Raworth.
In the wake of Cressida Dick’s resignation, Ms Cooper said: “I think we see the scale of issues with the Charing Cross inquiry, and we need to see reforms but it’s really worth stressing this. This is not about just one individual solving this or one police force.
“You’ve seen similar issues around Leicestershire, Sussex, Police Scotland, other forces as well. There is a real perfect storm facing policing right now and it is a serious one.
“You have a situation where crime is going up, prosecutions are going down, confidence is falling.
“There’s a legacy of damaging cuts, and also these individual toxic cases around the culture. There needs to be a proper serious programme of reform for policing.”
Ms Cooper said Cressida Dick was right to resign from her role as Metropolitan Police chief and that she supported the mayor’s decision.
The Labour politician said the challenges for policing were broader than one individual and she called for Home Office-led reforms to be put in place.
She added: “Once that confidence was lost then the Met Commissioner was right to resign and I support the mayor’s decision.
“But what I am concerned about in all of this debate is it’s all focusing on one individual, one individual new appointment, and also one police force.
“I think the challenges for policing are much broader than this and there needs to be Home Office-led reforms in this area as well.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Ms Cooper called out Priti Patel as she claimed the Home Secretary has been “silent” on policing for a year.
She said: “I strongly believe in the British policing model policing by consent. I think that’s something we should be proud of, but that means we also have to defend it, stand up for it and also deliver reforms that will achieve it.
“At the moment, there’s been none of those reforms from the Home Secretary. The Home Secretary has been silent on policing for a year.
“We have not seen any of the kinds of reforms to policing that we need and Labour has set out a plan that would do that, including reforms to training, including reforms to vetting, including reforms to misconduct, and including at their heart, making sure that violence against women and girls is part of the strategic policing requirement given to police forces across the country by the Home Office so that you challenge any internal culture issues, but also the policing of the country to make sure that women and girls can be kept safe, which currently too many feel that they’re not.”
