Sarah Everard vigil: Cressida Dick says she will not resign amid growing anger over police actions

Crowds of people at a vigil organised outside Scotland Yard today in Sarah Everard’s honour have started moving towards Parliament Square.

Dozens of people could be seen gathering outside Scotland Yard, chanting “shame on you” over the Met Police’s response to Saturday’s vigil for Sarah in Clapham Common.

Now, our reporters on the scene tell us attendees have started to make their way to Parliament Square, with many carrying signs condemning police violence and sexual harassment and violence against women.

“End state violence”, one sign read. “Protect women”, another said.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick on Sunday morning as she faced criticism over her officers’ response to Saturday’s vigil, PA has reported.

It is unclear what was exactly was said during the meeting.

The Met Police commissioner has faced widespread calls to resign after officers clashed with attendees of the vigil.

Meanwhile, London Mayor Sadiq Khan has called for investigations into the police response to the event and Home Secretary Priti Patel has asked for a review after both found Ms Dick’s explanation unsatisfactory.

Crowds of people participating in a vigil for Sarah Everard on Sunday sat in Parliament Square this afternoon as helicopters flew overhead.

Reporting from the scene, Maya Oppenheim, The Independent’s women’s correspondent, shared a photo showing a crowd of people sitting and lying on the ground:

Keir Starmer has said that he welcomes an independent investigation into the Met Police’s response to Saturday’s vigil.

However, he has said he does not think that Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick should resign over the clashes that unfolded between police officers and those attending a vigil for Sarah Everard last night.

“I don’t think Cressida Dick should resign,” he said.

Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick has said she has no plans of resigning from her role amid growing calls for her to step down over officers’ response to Saturday’s vigil.

Asked whether she is considering stepping down, Ms Dick said: “No I’m not.”

“What happened to Sarah appalls me,” she said, adding that it perhaps appalls her more as the “first woman commissioner” of the Met Police.

She said she was “more determined, not less, to lead my organisation” in the wake of Saturday’s events.

Metropolitan police commissioner Cressida Dick has said she is not considering giving up her post amid calls for her to resign over officers’ response to Saturday’s vigil for Sarah Everard.

Ms Dick said she feels “more determined, not less” to lead the organisation following the Met Police’s widely condemned handling of the event.

Read more on her comments here:

Twenty-six police officers were assaulted while policing Covid lockdown laws yesterday, according to the Metropolitan Police Federation.

Ken Marsh, chairman of the MPF, said officers were “punched, kicked, spat at” and said it was “not right or fair” that police were being condemned for doing their job.

He said in a statement: “Yesterday, 26 Metropolitan Police officers were assaulted - punched, kicked, spat at - policing Covid-19 lockdown laws that a democratically-elected government have imposed... laws that the Mayor of London has called on us to enforce to keep Londoners safe.

“Now colleagues are being condemned by politicians of all parties for doing what we have been asked to do by politicians on behalf of society. This is not right or fair. Damned if we do. Damned if we don’t. Are we supposed to enforce Covid-19 regulations or not?

“Political leaders should be doing much more to support the police officers they have put in this impossible position.

There were also reports that police officers were themselves distressed by events at the vigil, with some in tears after the scuffles started.

Cressida Dick’s position at Metropolitan Police commissioner is “untenable”, says Streatham MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy.

The Labour MP tweeted in response to the commissioner’s comments on Sky News that she feels “more determined, not less” to lead the organisation following the Met Police’s widely condemned handling of the event.

Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick also appealed for the public to understand the “fiendishly difficult” situation faced by officers.

Asked if she felt she owed an apology to her frontline officers, Dame Cressida Dick said: “I feel for my officers, I feel for them every day.”

She added: “I completely recognise that they are, particularly in this last year, often finding themselves in very very difficult situations, they are policing during a pandemic. Nobody wants a third wave to happen.

“It’s only a few weeks since the NHS was on its knees. They have a really difficult job, they have to make fine judgments, they often don’t have infinite information or all the time in the world.

“They have to make these really difficult calls and I don’t think anybody should be sitting back in an armchair and saying ‘well that was done badly’ or ‘I would have done it differently’ without actually understanding what was going through their minds.

“I guarantee that every single officer who was policing last night, like me, would rather we were not in the time of coronavirus. There could be a large, peaceful set of vigils all over the country.

“Most of them would have been at those vigils and I guarantee also that my officers up and down London and beyond, if they weren’t working, will have been thinking of Sarah at 9:30pm last night, they will have been lighting their candles or pausing, and it’s something we care about very, very deeply.”

The demonstration has now moved from Parliament Square to Trafalgar Square. Police say they are those attending “to be safe and not gather in numbers”, and thank those who have now gone home.

Police have also confirmed further details of the four arrests made at the vigil yesterday.

Two women and a man were arrested in relation to Covid rule breaches and face a fine. A woman aged in her teens was arrested on public order offence and released under investigation.