Cressida Dick was ousted because crime victims are not coming forward out of lack of faith in the police and the Met leadership “hasn’t got a plan” to deal with the racism and sexism blighting the force, Sadiq Khan said on Thursday.
The London Mayor said he had lost confidence in Dame Cressida after the disclosure of “disgusting” WhatsApp messages exchanged by officers at Charing Cross police station involving jokes about killing black children, the Holocaust, rape and beating women.
He denied issuing an ultimatum to her to sack the officers involved and attacked the officers behind a Met Police Taskforce Twitter account who had retweeted what he said was this “misleading” claim.
But during an at times emotional appearance on LBC radio, Mr Khan said that he had lost faith in the ability of the Met’s leadership to root out the racism, sexism and other “prejudices” blighting the force. He added that victims were not coming forward as a result.
“There has got to be an acknowledgement that there are deep cultural issues,” he said. “We are talking about overt racism, sexism, misogyny, homophobia, discrimination and the like and I’ll tell you why it’s important. I’ve spoken to victims of the most serious crimes — rape, sexual abuse, being knifed — victims are not coming forward because they don’t trust the police.”
He added: “Trust and confidence is crucial in our ability to fight crime.”
Mr Khan said that he had been “angered and disgusted” by the revelations about Charing Cross police station in a report by the Independent Office for Police Conduct and read a number of extracts to highlight the unacceptable content of officers’ exchanges.
He said examples included messages talking about “Somalian rats”, Auschwitz and kidnapping African children and using them as food.
He added that the number of officers in the WhatsApp groups who received the messages proved that it was impossible to explain the problems as the result of a few “bad apples” or “wrong ‘uns”.
Mr Khan’s comments follow Dame Cressida’s resignation last week after she was told by the Mayor’s aides that he no longer had confidence in her.
His decision followed a series of scandals which, as well as Charing Cross, included the murder of Sarah Everard by serving officer Wayne Couzens and the conduct of two officers, since jailed, who posted photos of the murder victims Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry.
He also said he will not back the Government’s choice for the next Met Commissioner if he does not have confidence in them to do the job.
“One of the things I have got to say to Londoners is I will not support the appointment of the next Commissioner if I don’t have confidence that he or she understands the importance of addressing these deep cultural issues,” he added.
He went on to deny reports he issued an ultimatum to Dame Cressida demanding she dismiss officers involved in the Charing Cross case or face suspension herself.
The Mayor said: “I was concerned about the impact on trust and confidence. It is not the case that the Commissioner was given an ultimatum to sack them or she would be sacked.”
