Cressida Dick should leave office 'when her term ends' next year, says Nazir Afzal

FORMER Chief Crown Prosecutor for North-West England Nazir Afzal OBE has said that Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick should leave office when her current term expires in April next year.

His comments came after reports claimed that she intends next month to attempt to extend her five-year fixed contract.

"Her failure to take responsibility is the root of all her problems," Afzal wrote in The Daily Mail. 

In the column, he argued that she must resign, for the good of the force and the safety of all Londoners.

"It’s up to Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, and the Home Secretary Priti Patel to tell Dame Cressida that she must go," he wrote.

"What an unlucky police commissioner Cressida Dick has proved to be. She has suffered a litany of catastrophes during her time as head of the Metropolitan police - and to hear her tell it, not one has been her fault. Because she will not accept blame or set an example as a leader, she has lost the confidence of both the public and her own officers," Afzal wrote in the newspaper column. 

"She is weak, indecisive and, on the evidence of her own record, incompetent. It’s hard to escape the conclusion that the Home Office, and Priti Patel in particular, want Dame Cressida to stay. The accident-prone commissioner makes a convenient human shield. As long as she is absorbing all the flak, senior politicians are out of the firing line."

He added that he has been demanding Dick's resignation since the debacle of the women’s vigil for murder victim Sarah Everard in March this year.

He wrote: "The 33-year-old marketing executive was abducted and killed by a serving police officer, PC Wayne Couzens, as she walked home. Cressida Dick and her team seemed to be caught completely unawares by the number of women who turned up to mourn and demonstrate.  At the time, I was staggered that the Met could be oblivious to the depth of public feeling.

"Never was it more important that a protest was policed with sensitivity and respect. A woman was dead at the hands of a policeman. Yet the Met ordered the cancellation of the vigil and then, when women turned up in defiance, bullied and manhandled them in pictures that shocked the country."

He also questioned the timing of the appointment of Dick as Dame Commander of the British Empire by Prince Charles at St James’s Palace.

The former chief Crown Prosecutor also alleged that police were powerless to prevent Scenes at Wembley Stadium on Sunday (11) which shamed the nation.

"Many believe that the collapse of security at Wembley, together with the vile racism directed at some players, have effectively ended our hopes of hosting the World Cup in 2030," he said.

Afzal added: "Before she was appointed to the top job, I had great respect for Cressida Dick. When I was Chief Crown Prosecutor, and then chief executive of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners until 2017, I knew her slightly and regarded her as an outstanding investigator.

"Unfortunately, her talents have not proved equal to managing the biggest budget of any police force in the country, with tens of thousands of officers under her command.

"She complains that she is the target of ‘armchair critics’. As usual, she underestimates the scale of the problem — many of her critics are the people who feel directly let down by her blunders, and we are by no means confined to armchairs."