The Mayor of London should be stripped of his powers over policing, ministers have heard today, after claims he failed to protect Londoners.
Conservative MP for Hendon Matthew Offord claimed Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan had “failed to protect the public”, adding: “I would ask the minister to consider removing responsibility of policing from the Mayor of London and introducing an intervention team to deliver on the first rule of elected representatives, and that is to keep the public safe.”
Home Office minister Kit Malthouse replied: “Obviously the removal of responsibility would need primary legislation, but what I hope now is that the mayor will focus on the task in hand, which is to produce an action plan to sort this out and to step into his responsibility in a way frankly I feel he has failed to do thus far.”
Mr Malthouse addressed MPs in the House of Commons, outlining the move to place the Met Police into a form of special measures.
He continued to say Mr Khan has been "asleep at the wheel" adding how he is "letting the city down".
Ministers called for Sadiq Khan to be stripped of his policing powers
Ian West
Minister for Crime and Policing Kit Malthouse slammed the Mayor of London over his handling of the Met
Joe Giddens
The policing minister told the Commons: “Over the last three years, this Government has overseen the largest funding boost for policing in a decade and we are well on the way to recruiting an extra 20,000 police officers nationally, with 2,599 already recruited by the Metropolitan Police, giving them the highest-ever number of officers.
“By contrast, as many Londoners will attest, the Mayor has been asleep at the wheel and is letting the city down.
“Teenage homicides in London were the highest they have ever been in the last year and 23 percent of all knife crime takes place in London, despite it having only 15 percent of the UK population.
“The Mayor must acknowledge that he has profound questions to answer. He cannot be passive and continue as he has. He must get a grip.”
Home Secretary Priti Patel ordered the Mayor of London to take "immediate action" to rectify the failing Met, following its plunge to special measures.
A devastating investigation revealed a log of fresh scandals, including 69,000 crimes being left unrecorded every year.
The Met Police has previously come under fire for its lacklustre response to protests by Extinction Rebellion, with footage of officers dancing with activists irking Londoners.
The shocking revelation follows the forced resignation of Commissioner Cressida Dick, who left her role in February.
Following the murder of Sarah Everard by one of her officers, the branding of the force as "institutionally corrupt" by an independent inquiry and the jailing of two officers for photographing bodies of murder victims, the Commissioner handed her role over to Sir Stephen House.
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) announced that "systemic concerns" about the force's performance raised by a new inspection had been so grave that the force needed to be put under special measures.