Met Police: Senior officer calls for Priti Patel to investigate Cressida Dick’s resignation

The second most senior Met Police officer has called for the Home Secretary to look into the events around Dame Cressida Dick’s departure from the force.

Deputy commissioner Sir Stephen House paid tribute to his boss as “the most outstanding police officer of her generation” during a fiery meeting between City Hall and the Met.

Speaking at the policing crime committee on Wednesday, Sir Stephen praised Dame Cressida and poured criticism on the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

He said: "I feel deeply disappointed. There’s a clear procedure in statute laid down to allow the removal of a police chief officer.

“It’s not been followed - it’s not even been initiated. In this instance, due process has not been followed.

"And instead, we’ve seen matters played out in the media. Because of this, I’ve written to the Home Secretary to ask her to have a review carried out of the events that have taken place."

He added: “I’m very surprised - as are many of us. Only a few months ago the mayor was an advocate of a three year term for the police commissioner.”

But City Hall sources insisted Sir Stephen’s remarks about due process were incorrect, and that the commissioner chose to step aside having failed to win the mayor’s confidence - removing any need for statutory process.

It comes more than a decade after then-Met commissioner Sir Ian Blair quit the role as police chief after losing the confidence of London mayor at the time Boris Johnson.

On Dame Cressida’s response to the vile WhatsApps uncovered at Charing Cross police station by watchdog the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), which he called “indefensible”, Sir Stephen said: “I’ve heard that some people feel the Commissioner does not understand the seriousness of the situation that faces the Met.

“This is simply not true, and is not a view that is supported in any way by the facts.

“One simply has to look at the activities she has personally initiated since these issues came to light to see her steely determination to confront those who fall short of our high standards.

“I and my colleagues were disgusted - as any right thinking person would be.”

But he insisted the contents of the report could not have been a shock to Mr Khan, and said: “The text messages in the Charing Cross case couldn’t have been a surprise to this mayor.

“The Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) has been briefed on these events and they had been under investigation for four years.”

And he paid an emotional tribute to Dame Cressida, saying: "This city, its people and its visitors have been deprived of the outstanding police officer of her generation.

“I have never worked with a finer, more ethical, more professional, more resolute and dutiful and more caring leader.

"I feel extremely sad. I feel sad for my boss that her police career and lifetime of public service has ended in this way. And I know that I’m not alone in feeling this."

A spokesperson for the London mayor said: “Trust in the police among Londoners has plummeted over the last two years and is now nearly at an all-time low following a series of devastating scandals involving police officers, including evidence of misogyny, racism, sexism, homophobia and bullying.

“The mayor is democratically elected by millions of Londoners and it is his job to hold the police to account – and he will continue to do so.

“The mayor is now working with the Home Secretary on the process to appoint a new commissioner at the Met, who understands the scale of the problem and who will take the necessary action to restore trust in the service.”