Sadiq Khan faced questions on Thursday over his grip on the Metropolitan Police, after a report last month found that the force is failing in almost all areas of its work.
The mayor was told by Tory assembly member Lord Bailey that “black children are dying on the streets of London because someone in this building is not doing their job properly”.
Mr Khan said the Met had undergone a “significant” transformation under his administration, while also blaming the impact of the last Conservative government’s austerity programme.
The topic was raised at Mayor’s Question Time following the publication last month of a new report into the Met by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS).
The force was assessed across nine areas and was graded as either “requires improvement” or “inadequate” in seven of those - including in ‘investigating crime’.
Liberal Democrat assembly member Gareth Roberts questioned whether it was right for Sophie Linden, Mr Khan’s policing deputy, to remain in post for the next four years - given the Met’s failings.
“We’ve had scandal after scandal, failure after failure, devastating report after devastating report,” he said, before asking: “What is it going to take for you to lose confidence in your deputy mayor for policing?”
Mr Khan said he had “full confidence” in Ms Linden, who has held the role since he first took office in 2016. He also credited her with undertaking several key pieces of work in the police force, including her review of the Met’s “gangs matrix” and her decision to refer the Met’s investigation into the “Grindr killer” Stephen Port for an inspection by HMICFRS.
But Lord Bailey, who stood against the Labour mayor in the 2021 mayoral election, asked if the mayor would take a more hands-on approach to ensure the Met improves as quickly as possible.
“Do you think it’s time that you now take a closer role, a personal role, in scrutinising the police and helping MOPAC [the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime]?” he asked.
The mayor pointed to his decision to set up the London Policing Board, a body of experts in policing and community outreach, chaired by Mr Khan, which holds the Met to account on how it is reforming itself.
“We will make sure we do what we can to support and hold the police to account, but you can’t take away from the consequences of the last 14 years,” he said, referring to the Conservatives’ post-2010 austerity policy.
Lord Bailey pressed him however: “Notwithstanding all of the reassurances we’ve had from the deputy mayor, which now feel very hollow, I’m asking you to directly do something.
“This is important. In my own community, our children are being murdered at quite a rate. We’d like someone to support us in scrutinising the Met to do better.”
The mayor replied that was “not the evidence” in the report, and he encouraged Lord Bailey “to read” the report.
Lord Bailey hit back, saying: “Londoners will be hugely disappointed by that dismissive answer, to what is the single most important thing happening to London today.
“Black children are dying on the streets of London, because somebody in this building is not doing their job properly.”
Susan Hall, the Tory assembly member and former mayoral candidate, told Mr Khan that over his eight years “the Met, quite honestly, has gone backwards”. She asked him how he can believe that the force is “heading in the right direction”, as he said following the report’s publication in August.
“The size and the scale of the transformation being carried out by the Met Police is significant,” said Mr Khan.
He stressed that Scotland Yard “now recognise there are problems, there is now a plan to address those problems, the Inspectorate [report] was a snapshot before those plans have had a chance to be actioned”.
He added: “Over the course of the next few months, you’ll see those plans actioned and we’re hoping that will lead to the changes that the HMICFRS talked about.”
