The Met Police “clearly [has] got a problem” that needs to be tackled, the Justice Secretary has said, ahead of a review which is expected to criticise the force for being racist, sexist and homophobic.
A review into the force led by Baroness Casey is set to be published on Tuesday.
According to government and police sources who spoke to the Guardian newspaper, the report is “atrocious” for the force, and will make it clear it is in the “last-chance saloon”.
Dominic Raab, the Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, said there were “clearly practises that have been far too prevalent" within the force that needed tackling “head-on".
The Cabinet minister said it was clear that bad behaviour was not isolated to only one or two officers.
Speaking on LBC he said: “The vast majority of police officers in the Met and elsewhere do their job professionally, serve the country extremely well.
“But we've clearly got a problem in the Met and the thing to do is to own that problem, take it, tackle it head-on.
“That's why the Casey review is so important, that's why the work that Commissioner Rowley is already doing is so important.”
Baroness Casey was appointed to review the force's culture and standards after the murder of Sarah Everard by serving officer Wayne Couzens.
Lady Casey is expected to criticise Scotland Yard for failing to tackle its problems despite decades of warnings from previous reports. She is said to have illustrated her findings with shocking new case studies.
The 300-page report is said to raise the question of what should happen to the Met if it cannot reform, and criticise its leadership.
It is expected to criticise failings to stop Couzens and serial rapist David Carrick and raise concerns about the unit to which they both belonged, the parliamentary and diplomatic protection command.
The report is also expected to say that austerity had a damaging effect on the force’s neighbourhood policing, with some of its officers and units overworked.
According to the BBC, Home Secretary Suella Braverman has been in talks with Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley this week about the findings.
Sir Mark was appointed the Met’s chief in September and has pledged to turn around the beleaguered force.
The interim Casey review published in October found hundreds of Met officers had been getting away with misconduct.
It found many claims of misogyny, racism and homophobia had been badly mishandled.
Sir Mark apologised and admitted there were officers still serving who should have been sacked, and has since called for additional powers to sack rogue officers.
The Met also faces two other separate reports into how Couzens and Carrick were able to become policemen, and into failings in the Stephen Port serial killer case.
A Met spokesperson said: “The report will play an important role in informing and shaping our work to deliver More Trust, Less Crime and High Standards.
“It will be published next week which will be the appropriate point for us to respond in further detail.”
