Downing Street parties investigation will not be delayed by Cressida Dick's departure – live

• 12.56pm GMT 12:56 New Met chief must tackle 'policing culture' after force hit by scandals, says Priti Patel
• 12.12pm GMT 12:12 Labour MP has whip suspended after allegations he made racist comments
• 11.53am GMT 11:53 Pressure on No 10 to have no involvement in Met police chief choice amid Partygate inquiry
• 11.07am GMT 11:07 Rishi Sunak suggests he does not expect to receive police questionnaire about No 10 parties
• 10.13am GMT 10:13 Dick's exit not expected to delay partygate inquiry

Cressida Dick was “the most defensive and dismissive” leader of a British police force, with problems worsening under her tenure as Scotland Yard’s commissioner, the leader of the National Black Police Association (NBPA) has said.

Dick announced her departure on Thursday after a falling out with London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, who lacked confidence that she could improve an allegedly misogynistic, racist and closed culture blighting Britain’s biggest force.

Insp Andy George, the president of the NBPA, praised Dick’s decades of public service but said it was right she should stand down.

George, a former firearms officer based in Northern Ireland, said Dick had been brought down by her “achilles heel” of wanting to protect the Met’s reputation. He said the next commissioner needed to end a “culture of fear” and a “toxic culture” in the Met.

The ousting of Dick triggered criticism of Khan, praise for the outgoing commissioner, as well as relief that Dick’s tumultuous commissionership was coming to an end.

George said:

The news that Dame Cressida Dick has resigned from leading the Metropolitan police service has come with great sadness across policing. Her devotion to officers and staff was clear for all to see but this was ultimately her achilles heel and her desire to protect the reputation of the force has prevented the wholesale cultural reforms that are much needed.

The vast majority of police officers put on their uniform and do their best to protect the public but time and again we have seen a culture of fear within the [Met]. A fear of challenging inappropriate behaviour and even when that behaviour is challenged, it is rarely dealt with robustly. The officer reporting discrimination can often find themselves being targeted for speaking out.

Defending the indefensible and failing to tackle the widespread issues of racism, misogyny and bullying allows bullies and poor behaviour to thrive and does a disservice to the many hardworking police officers across London and the UK. I have the privilege of speaking to many leaders in policing and I found Dame Cressida Dick to be the most defensive and dismissive leader I met.

Read more from my colleagues Vikram Dodd and Ben Quinn here:

The new Met chief must be prepared to tackle the “policing culture” which has left the country’s biggest force reeling from a series of scandals, the home secretary, Priti Patel, has warned.

Patel, who is beginning the search for a successor to Cressida Dick, said it would require “strong and decisive leadership” to rebuild public confidence in the force’s “integrity and professionalism”.

Writing in London’s Evening Standard, Patel, who must now oversee the appointment of a successor, said she would be looking for someone who could deliver results for the public.

She said:

Following a series of appalling incidents and too many historical cases involving serving Met police officers, it is clear that strong and decisive new leadership will be required to restore public confidence in our largest police force.

The public in London and across the entire country must once again have confidence in the integrity and professionalism of the police officers who serve them.

Policing culture and conduct have rightly come under scrutiny. Be in no doubt that a new leader must tackle these institutional issues.

The former Met police commissioner Paul Stephenson haspraised the work Cressida Dick did as commissioner, but admitted her position had become “untenable”.

He also suggested the successor didn’t necessarily need a police background and warned that the successor “will face challenges on a daily basis that feel like there’s a bullet with their name on it”.

He said:

I think her position was completely untenable ... once [Khan] has publicly made it clear that within a matter of days or weeks, his confidence is ebbing and is likely to go, then frankly, I don’t think she had anywhere else to go really.

Stephenson said the force should be “casting the net as wide as possible” in the search for a new commissioner. Dick is not due to leave until a replacement has been found.

Stephenson, who led the force from 2009 to 2011, told LBC:

We should be casting the net as wide as possible to find the best possible person and I would not constrict that, not in any way shape or form.

He added that included anyone who was eligible to apply, even from outside policing.

Dan Sabbagh

Ben Wallace, Britain’s defence secretary, heads to Moscow on Friday riding high: ranked by Conservative members as the best performer in cabinet, his name is being whispered as a possible future secretary general of Nato.

It marks a peak for the 51-year-old, who once observed he had “never had an accelerated path through the Tory party” but who has, unlike most members of Boris Johnson’s cabinet, come through crises with his reputation enhanced.

Allies put this down in part to sheer diligence – Wallace admitted last week on a ministerial visit to Croatia that he had only had four days off in the past 18 months – and he gets by on little sleep, frequently at his desk, one said, at 7am or earlier.

This time, Wallace has attempted to prepare thoroughly for his meeting with Sergei Shoigu, the first bilateral between UK and Russian defence ministers since 2013, even reaching out across party lines.

Read more here:

Commenting on Cressida Dick’s resignation, director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW) Andrea Simon said:

It is imperative that the incoming commissioner shows strong leadership and accountability in addressing the Met’s abysmal record in responding to violence against women and girls.

An overwhelming number of police failings relate to sexual violence and domestic abuse.

What’s more, police abuse of power for sexual purposes is now the single biggest form of corruption dealt with by the police complaints body.

The Met has a serious problem with institutional racism and misogyny and we must now see commitment to the difficult but meaningful internal work to transform its culture.

Labour MP Neil Coyle has apologised for allegedly racist comments he made to a journalist on the parliamentary estate describing them as “insensitive”, adding that he has “apologised to everyone involved”.

In a statement following the withdrawal of the Labour whip, Coyle promised to co-operate “fully” with an investigation into his conduct.

It comes after the Bermondsey and Old Southwark MP was accused of using offensive language during a conversation with a reporter at Strangers’ Bar on the parliamentary estate.

Coyle said:

I’m very sorry for my insensitive comments, have apologised to everyone involved and will be co-operating fully with the investigation.

Peter Walker

The Labour MP Neil Coyle has had the whip suspended after allegations he made racist comments to a journalist in a House of Commons bar, a party spokesperson said.

It comes after a complaint by Henry Dyer, a political reporter for the Insider website, about the alleged behaviour of Coyle, the MP for the south London seat of Bermondsey and Old Southwark since 2015.

In a statement published by Insider, Dyer, who is from a British Chinese background, said Coyle referred to China as “Fu Manchu”, and told Dyer he looked like he was involved in giving money to the Labour MP Barry Gardiner, who received large sums from a woman who later was accused of being a Chinese agent.

Dyer said he had subsequently encountered Coyle around parliament and felt a “sense of discomfort”, and decided to inform the Commons Speaker, Lindsay Hoyle.

A Labour spokesperson said: “The Labour party expects the highest standards of behaviour from all our MPs and we take allegations of this sort very seriously. Accordingly, the chief whip has now suspended the Labour whip from Neil Coyle pending an investigation.”

Read the full story here:

Dame Cressida Dick’s resignation as Met police chief has been welcomed by critics who said they were “delighted” by her decision to go.

Alastair Morgan, who has spent decades campaigning for justice for his brother Daniel, who was killed with an axe in a pub car park in Sydenham, south-east London, in the 1980s, said Dame Cressida has “disappointed” his family on every level.

Speaking to the PA news agency, he said:

The first time I dealt with Cressida Dick was in 2012 and since then all she has done in relation to my family is just delay, obstruct and disappoint on a huge level.

Although I think it is a shame that we are seeing another commissioner disappear under a cloud of smoke, it is necessary.

My only anxiety now is who is going to replace her and face the massive job in front of them of rebuilding confidence in the Met.

Former Conservative MP Harvey Proctor, whose house was raided by officers from the Met’s failed Operation Midland launched in reaction to false allegations by jailed fantasist Carl Beech about a murderous VIP paedophile ring, said he was delighted by the news.

He said:

It is now time to clean the Augean stables so that a full inquiry can be conducted on all her personal mistakes.

Campaign group Reclaim These Streets, which is bringing a legal challenge against the force over its handling of a Sarah Everard vigil, tweeted a simple message after the news broke last night.

Co-founder of the group, Anna Birley, told the BBC she hoped Dick’s replacement was a feminist.

She said:

I hope that they’re a feminist, I hope that they are somebody who acknowledges that there is a problem because that was something that we found really frustrating over the past months, the lack of willingness to even acknowledge that a problem exists, because without acknowledging that it’s very hard to fix it.

Patsy Stevenson, who was arrested at the vigil, was pleased that Dick had gone.

She said:

We need to focus as well on this not being a token gesture. This does not fix anything, and I just hope that whoever is in charge next understands that radical change needs to be implemented to fix the systemic issues within the Met.

Rowena Mason

Pressure is mounting on No 10 to make clear it will have no direct involvement in the choice of the next Met police commissioner, given the current investigation into Downing Street lockdown parties, and that it should refrain from trying to influence the inquiry.

However, an “ally” of the prime minister told the Times in a veiled warning that the police ought to think very carefully before issuing any penalty to the prime minister.

Sir Bob Neill, a senior Tory MP and chair of the Commons justice committee, said it was “completely inappropriate to suggest that there should be any special treatment for anyone involved in these inquiries and any suggestion of political pressure on the police is completely reprehensible”, adding that No 10 “would do well to disown it”.

Former police watchdog Zoe Billingham said a series of scandals “sadly” led to Metropolitan Police Commissioner’s resignation but “taking the scalp of woman” will not necessarily solve cultural problems in the force.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour, Billingham, who was Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue for 12 years, said:

Charing Cross was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

The comments of those officers was an abomination but the way the Met then handled that, with nine officers still serving and two having been promoted, I think was probably the last breach of trust the mayor could take and that led to, sadly in my view, a change.

She added: “I don’t believe that taking the scalp of woman is necessarily going to be the way to address the cultural issues in the Met.”

Responding to reports that a senior ally of Boris Johnson has said the Met Police will need to be “very certain” that he has breached lockdown rules before issuing him with a fine, Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey said:

This veiled threat by Number 10 allies is amongst very heavy competition perhaps the darkest moment of this whole sorry saga.

It shows a fundamental belief in the heart of government that Boris Johnson should be above the law and that Number 10 will bring any institution into disrepute to save Johnson’s skin.

This is a sobering reminder of why we need a cast-iron guarantee that Boris Johnson and his team will have nothing to do with the appointment of Cressida Dick’s successor.

There was a time that the Conservatives called themselves the party of law and order; the public will laugh at that very idea for generations.

The chancellor appeared to suggest that he does not expect to be asked to fill out a police questionnaire about his involvement in a No 10 event that possibly broke Covid rules, PA news reports.

Scotland Yard has said it will be sending formal legal questionnaires by the end of the week to more than 50 individuals, from whom officers involved with Operation Hillman – the probe into so-called “partygate” – wish to hear, regarding the 12 events they are investigating.

Rishi Sunak has previously confirmed that he was at one of the events subject to Metropolitan Police inquiries, which was the birthday do held by Downing Street staff and Carrie Johnson for the prime minister on June 19 2020.

However, the chancellor has insisted that he had been present at the cabinet room on the day in question for a routine meeting to discuss the pandemic situation.

On Friday, Sunak told Sky News he had not received a questionnaire from the Met and, asked whether he expected to receive a form to complete, he replied: “No... well, I don’t know.”

The Treasury chief also said he did not think he had broken Covid rules.

When asked last week about the birthday celebration, at which one minister described the Prime Minister as being “ambushed by cake”, Sunak said he went to the Cabinet Room as he had for “100, 200, God knows how many other Covid meetings”.

Pressed on Friday about whether he still has confidence in Johnson, the Chancellor added: “The prime minister has my total support.”

Jonathan Lis, deputy director of the thinktank British Influence, has highlighted the fact that Guto Harri, No 10’s new director of communications, is having some problems with – err – communication after his account shared a problematic tweet.

Vikram Dodd

Cressida Dick’s departure came as the Met conducted one of its most high profile and sensitive investigations into partygate.

It is understood those connected with the inquiry do not believe the loss of the commissioner will damage or hinder the inquiry, or make it any more prone to any attempt to sway its course.

The commissioner was not in control of the investigation and was due only to be periodically updated on its progress.

A Met source told The Guardian: “The investigation is continuing.”

Detectives from the Met special enquiry team will start sending letters to those they believe attended parties and events under investigation, believed to include the prime minister.

Once the replies are received, police will write to the criminal records office who formally issue the fixed penalty notices.

Matthew Ryder QC said Dame Cressida Dick’s interview on BBC Radio London, in which she said she believed she had been leading a real transformation in the Met over the last five years, may have prompted the London mayor’s actions.

Ryder, who represented the Stephen Lawrence family in their claim against the Met, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

I think that statement yesterday probably illustrated very vividly why Sadiq Khan had no choice but to take the position that he did.

If anybody listening to what she said yesterday, she thinks that what she’s been doing in denying that culture existing within the Met was an effective way of creating change.

She wasn’t understanding the problem and she wasn’t the right person to lead that change.

You can be a good police officer in terms of being operationally successful and be a poor commissioner in terms of creating the right culture in the police.

And she didn’t get it right on the culture of public confidence.

He later clarified that he did not know for sure if it was her comments in the interview specifically that prompted Khan’s actions, but rather it was “illustrative of a deeper misconception about her role”.

Susan Hall said “policing work will continue” – including the investigation of allegations of lockdown parties at Downing Street – despite the shake-up at the Met.

The chairwoman of the London Assembly police and crime committee told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4: Dick wouldn’t have been dealing with it anyway, adding that all the work that is in progress will continue.

She said:

What needs to happen now is Sadiq Khan needs to really make sure that we get another commissioner in place as soon as possible.

When questioned if the search for a successor is complicated due the prime minister being under investigation, Hall said:

It (the investigation) will continue. She personally doesn’t deal with these things as you know, (it’s) other detectives.

Everything that’s going on in the police service will continue.

Asked if bringing in a different body rather than the Met to deal with terrorist crimes was on her agenda, Hall said:

No, it isn’t and actually, one has to commend the work that’s done in our national counter-terrorism capacity.

We’re doing wonderful work there, which obviously nobody gets to know about for obvious reasons. Priti Patel, I believe, is very happy with that part of the work.

A government minister has said it was “regrettable” that the relationship between Sadiq Khan and Dame Cressida Dick had broken down so much that she had to leave her post as Met Police chief.

Transport minister Robert Courts told Sky News:

I think it is a little bit of a shame things have happened the way they have.

It appears clearly that the relationship was broken down between the mayor and of course Dame Cressida.

That is a shame, but I think what we’ve got to do now is focus on the future and to start to address all of the issues that will cause the people of London concern.

Asked to expand on why it was a “bit of a shame” that the relationship became unworkable, Courts replied:

Clearly it is a key relationship, isn’t it, between the mayor and his chief police officer?

It would have been better if that had been handled in a way that meant the relationship hadn’t broken down, but it clearly has – both parties have said that – so I’m just acknowledging the fact that that relationship has broken down, which is regrettable, but as I say, we are where we are, and we need to look to the future.

Nicola Slawson

Sadiq Khan is facing criticism from some quarters for the way he handled the departure of Cressida Dick, who announced her resignation from her role as metropolitan police commissioner on Thursday.

Susan Hall, Conservativechairwoman of the London Assembly’s police and crime committee, said the mayor handled the situation “extremely badly”.

Hall, who has long been a vocal critic of Khan’s, told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4:

Confidence in the police at the moment is at an all-time low and this won’t help either. I think the way he said to the media he put her on notice, he should have been talking behind closed doors.

He also renewed her contract only a couple of months ago. If he was that unhappy, then I would wonder why he did that?

Hall said there had been a “big question mark” over what “on notice” meant following comments made by Khan about Dick’s future at the Met before she left her post.

Hall said:

We did a motion at the Assembly yesterday and that was unanimous, cross-party, (on) what exactly ‘on notice’ meant.

She also said she agreed Dick’s departure makes Londoners less safe due to all of the “turmoil” that follows.

She said:

99% of officers are very good, brave officers, and they’ve been absolutely rocked by the latest IOPC reports into misogyny.

They need confidence, they need support, and to have done this in this way, I think Sadiq Khan is completely wrong.

It will leave a void at the top as opposed to a properly managed handover, which is no way to run a service like this, no way to the Metropolitan Police.

Welcome to today’s Politics Liveblog. I’m Nicola Slawson and I’ll be taking the lead today. You can contact me on Twitter (@Nicola_Slawson) or via email (nicola.slawson@nicolaslawson.co.uk) if you have any questions or think I’m missing something.

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