Created on
02 September 2022
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said: “Londoners will be able to see that this review is clearly biased and ignores the facts.
“On the former Commissioner’s watch, trust in the police fell to record lows following a litany of terrible scandals. What happened was simple – I lost confidence in the former Commissioner’s ability to make the changes needed and she then chose to stand aside.
“Londoners elected me to hold the Met Commissioner to account and that’s exactly what I have done. I make absolutely no apology for demanding better for London and for putting the interests of the city I love first. I will continue working with the new Commissioner to reduce crime and to rebuild trust and confidence in the police.”
Notes to editors:
- The Commissioner decided to step aside ahead of any statutory process being commenced under the PRSA 2011.The Commissioner resigning rather than facing the process for removal from her post is what happened when then Mayor Boris Johnson lost confidence in Commissioner Ian Blair.
- The Mayor’s role under section 3 of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011 requires him to ensure that the Met is both ‘efficient and effective’ and to hold the Commissioner to account for the exercise of her functions and the exercise of the functions of persons under her direction and control.
- Following a series of devastating scandals including: the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer; the HMICFRS inspection of the MPS’s counter-corruption arrangements and other matters related to the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel; and the overt racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia and discrimination exposed at Charing Cross Police Station public trust in the Met Police plummeted to the lowest level on record in the first three months of 2022. Significant issues of discrimination, disproportionality performance and standards were also regularly flagged to MOPAC. It was against this backdrop that the Mayor lost confidence in the ability of the former Met Commissioner to lead the deep-rooted change needed.