Power struggle between Priti Patel and Sadiq Khan ‘put off potential Metropolitan Police commissioners’

The power struggle between Priti Patel and Sadiq Khan put off potential Metropolitan Police commissioners and threatens to hamper the force’s transformation, current and former officers have warned.

Members of Britain’s largest police force were said to be “confused” about who is leading them as they were put into special measures last month, and new commissioner Sir Mark Rowley’s start date has not been announced.

The appointment process took five months after Dame Cressida Dick announced her shock resignation in February.

The Independent understands that fewer applicants put themselves forward for the job than were expected by the Home Office, and that some senior officers encouraged to apply refused the opportunity.

The role of Metropolitan Police commissioner is said to have become increasingly unattractive given the level of scrutiny from both the government and public, and the tug of war between a Conservative home secretary and a Labour City Hall.

The size of the force, which has over 34,000 officers, and the unique breadth of its responsibilities mean that few officers have the rank and experience necessary to take the helm.

The chair of the Metropolitan Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, said the role of commissioner had become less desirable when “everyone is screaming about how horrific we are”.

“You should have dozens applying for this kind of job and we didn’t, I think we had five,” Ken Marsh told The Independent.

“That shows where we are, there’s so much interference. Who is in charge of us? There’s this constant battle [between Ms Patel and Mr Khan].”

Mr Khan is due to remain London mayor until 2024, while Ms Patel has so far retained her position as home secretary following an exodus of ministers that forced Boris Johnson’s resignation.

The two commissioner candidates who reached the final interview stage were Sir Mark, the former head of UK Counter Terrorism Policing, and current Scotland Yard assistant commissioner Nick Ephgrave.

Campaigners have voiced concern that the long-standing issues that culminated in monitoring by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) cannot be addressed by officers who have already held senior positions in the force.

Addressing parliament days after the Met was informed of HMIC’s decision, Labour MP Diane Abbott said it was “unlikely that the Met can be reformed by men who have spent almost their entire careers” and suggested that the commissioner selection process should be reopened.

Kit Malthouse, then the policing minister, responded: “We can only interview those people who apply.”

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Mr Ephgrave has been in the Metropolitan Police for the majority of his career, having joined in 1990, but served in Surrey Police for six years and reached the rank of chief constable before returning to London.

Sir Mark, who retired from his role as the assistant commissioner for specialist operations in 2018, was in the Metropolitan Police for six years and spent the majority of his career elsewhere.

A former police chief said the field of candidates who put themselves forward following Dame Cressida’s resignation were not as “strong” as those in previous rounds of recruitment.

“There’s the particular difficulty of accountability to the mayor and home secretary, who have very different views and are both tricky to work with,” the retired officer added.

“I don’t think they work well together and they’ve been publicly critical of each other.

“That is a horrible position for a professional to be in because it will be hard to keep both of them satisfied that you’re doing a very good job ... they have different ideas of what a good commissioner looks like.”

The new commissioner will be tasked with rebuilding public trust following an unprecedented run of horrific cases including the murder of Sarah Everard and officers’ sharing of photographs of women’s dead bodies.

A letter from HMIC announcing the imposition of special measures listed a wealth of other issues including missed targets for the handling of emergency calls, failures to assess vulnerability, crimes not being recorded, the treatment of victims, a backlog of online child sex abuse referrals, insufficient capacity in some areas and inadequate supervision of officers.

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HM inspector of constabulary Matt Parr wrote that the watchdog has had “substantial and persistent concerns” about the force “for a considerable time”.

His letter said “systemic failures” relating to corruption and officer training had been exacerbated by an influx of young and inexperienced recruits brought in as part of the government drive to replace 20,000 officers cut during austerity measures.

Police sources say the sheer scale of reform needed cannot be effected by someone who is not already familiar with the inner workings of the Metropolitan Police, but critics believe meaningful change cannot come from inside the force.

Alastair Morgan, who campaigned for decades for an inquiry into his brother Daniel Morgan’s unsolved murder, said the eventual findings of institutional corruption had been delayed and downplayed.

“I find it hard to see any prospect of improvement,” he told The Independent. “It isn’t just confined to the police, my experience is that oversight of the police by whatever powers that be has been abysmal for years.

“I was aware of corruption in the investigation three weeks after my brother’s murder but no one took any notice.”

Dame Cressida resisted pressure to step down following the release of the Daniel Morgan report in June 2021, after being personally criticised for delaying inquiries, but resigned eight months later after a row with Mr Khan following a damning report into officers’ behaviour at Charing Cross police station.

Sir Mark will be charged with implementing the Morgan report’s findings, as well as those of an ongoing public inquiry sparked by the murder of Sarah Everard and an independent review of the force’s culture.

Mr Marsh said that there were also internal problems to face, with morale among officers low and calls for better pay and changes to pensions mounting.

“We’re not in a good place,” he added. “We need leadership, we need to empower our colleagues to feel safe to do their role in an environment where they’re not going to get chastised.”