Sadiq Khan denies demanding Dame Cressida sack condemned officers or face suspension

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has denied issuing an ultimatum to outgoing Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick demanding that she sack officers at Charing Cross station who were condemned by the police watchdog for bad behaviour or face suspension herself.

The mayor told LBC that he was “angered and disgusted” by what a number of serving officers involved in the case said and was “concerned about the impact on trust and confidence”.

But, he added: “It is not the case that the commissioner was given an ultimatum to sack them or she would be sacked.”

Earlier this month, the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) condemned Scotland Yard officers for a range of bad behaviour, including racism, misogyny, harassment and offensive social media messages.

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An investigation was launched after a complaint that an officer had sex with a drunk person in a police station, but it later uncovered much more – including evidence of colleagues involved in bullying, violence towards women, perverting the course of justice and using discriminatory language.

The investigation centred largely on Charing Cross police station near Trafalgar Square in central London and led eventually to one officer being sacked and others being disciplined.

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Less than two weeks after the results of the investigation were revealed, Dame Cressida resigned from the Met’s top job.

Met Police Federation has ‘no faith’ in Sadiq Khan

Dame Cressida dramatically quit the role last week when Mr Khan made clear he had no confidence in her plans to reform the service.

In the aftermath of the announcement of Dame Cressida’s departure, The Metropolitan Police Federation, which represents more than 31,000 officers in the capital, declared it has “no faith” in the London mayor.

Ken Marsh, chairman of the federation, said the atmosphere among officers was at “rock bottom” following Dame Cressida’s resignation and accused politicians of using “policing and the career of the country’s most senior police leader to deflect from their own failings”.

Amid the ongoing row, Mr Khan said a Metropolitan Police Twitter account had shared information about him that was “misleading” after the Met Police Taskforce Twitter account retweeted a tweet which said: “If the Mayor of London doesn’t understand that the process for sacking officers is independent of chief constables… well that’s a bit of a problem.”

The Met Police account quote tweeted the original and added the words “exactly this”.

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Mr Khan told LBC: “I say with respect to the chair of the police federation and to the person responsible for that Met Police official account amplifying misleading information – are you making it easier or harder for officers who witness this to come forward?

“Are you making it more likely or less likely that Londoners will have their trust and confidence restored in the police service?

“And it is a police service that we admire, but there are deep cultural issues where you have got a situation where, overtly, people are using this sort of language.”

The tweet by the taskforce has since been deleted.

Met has ‘deep cultural issues’

Mr Khan also reiterated his belief that the Met Police has “deep cultural issues” and that victims of serious crimes including rape, sexual abuse and knife crime “are not coming forward because they don’t trust the police”.

“We are not talking about unconscious bias, we’re not talking about unwitting prejudice. We’re talking about overt racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, discrimination and the like,” the London mayor said.

He continued: “It’s deeply depressing. If you’re a black Londoner, if you’re a woman, how can you hand on heart say police officers with these views aren’t treating you differently?”

The London mayor added that “the current leadership, clearly, hasn’t got a plan to address the deep cultural issues”.

Describing the timeline of events with Dame Cressida leading to her resignation, Mr Khan said: “The commissioner wrote to me last Friday. I thought we would continue the conversation because those plans in that letter weren’t enough. Then before we could meet last Thursday, the commissioner resigned.”

He added that since Dame Cressida’s departure was announced, his office has been ‘”inundated” with police officers whistleblowing and recognising the importance of the change at the top.

Mayor outlines Met commissioner appointment process

The mayor also repeated that he will not back the government’s choice for the next Met Police commissioner if he does not have confidence in them to do the job, adding: “I have got no doubt the home secretary will be incredibly professional when it comes to recruiting the next commissioner.”

He said applications will be welcome from those in the UK as well as the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

There will then be a longlisting process, one-to-one meetings with the mayor and candidates will then attend an interview with both Mr Khan and Home Secretary Priti Patel.

Mr Khan also told LBC that he is “sure” Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer’s police protection “is being reviewed” following Boris Johnson’s use of the discredited claim that he failed to prosecute paedophile Jimmy Savile as head of the Crown Prosecution Service.

“He’s at risk and there’s a link I’m afraid between the death threats he’s received and the language used by the prime minister – and we can’t escape that, there’s a cause and an effect,” the mayor said.

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