Cressida Dick to lead Met until April 2024

Home Secretary Priti Patel has announced that Cressida Dick will continue to lead the Metropolitan Police until April 2024.

The extension of her leadership, which is granted by the Queen, was also supported by the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

The appointment, however, has not been met with widespread support, with a number of high-profile signatories recently writing an open letter accusing her of ‘presiding over a culture of incompetence and cover-up’.

Dick said: “I am immensely honoured and humbled to have been asked to extend my time as Commissioner for a further two years. I am proud to continue to serve my city. In the last four and a half years Met teams have dealt with some extraordinary challenges, including most recently in the pandemic, and delivered some fantastic results – critically in reducing violent crimes. In addition, we have grown and modernised.

“I look forward to continuing to work with my dedicated, courageous colleagues and the public to create an even more visible, stronger and professional Met. We will strive to prevent and reduce violence and the crimes Londoners care most about, bring more criminals to justice, and protect, support and build the confidence of all our communities.

“I'd like to thank the Mayor, the Home Secretary and the Prime Minister for the confidence they have shown in me. I am acutely aware that there are many excellent leaders in policing.

“Every day across the capital, officers and police staff come to work focused on protecting people and making London safer – it is not only what the public expect and demand of us, but it is what inspired each of us to join and why after more than 35 years in policing I remain so passionate. Londoners have my word that I will keep working as hard as I can for them and for this wonderful city that I love. I take the responsibilities I have been entrusted with extremely seriously.”