Priti Patel blasts Cressida Dick for a "failure of leadership" over racism at the Met

2 February 2022, 14:10 | Updated: 2 February 2022, 16:10

Sexist, racist and homophobic messages exchanged by a group of Met police officers show a "failure of leadership" and exposed problems with the culture in policing, Home Secretary Priti Patel has said.

Following the publication of the WhatsApp and Facebook messages between officers from a now-disbanded team based primarily at Charing Cross Police station in Westminster, Ms Patel told the Commons Home Affairs Committee on Wednesday that the problem was not isolated and there had been "too many instances" where "appalling" behaviour has been seen within the police.

"There are problems with the culture... within the Metropolitan Police," said the Home Secretary, when asked by committee chairwoman Diana Johnson if she thought police forces were "institutionally misogynistic".

"We are not seeing one-off incidences, this is not isolated.

"We have seen now too, too many times, too many instances where, in policing, we just see the most appalling behaviours, the most appalling conduct.

"I also think it shows a failure of leadership in some quarters."

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She said the "very, very serious and significant" matters flagged in the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) report needed "not just following up, but further investigation".

"You've asked me the question about institutional misogyny within policing," she said.

"There are cultural issues there.

"What we saw in the IOPC report absolutely points to, I'm not even going to say just misogynistic behaviours, I think it's cultural and attitudinal."

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Mina Smallman - whose daughters Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry were pictured at the scene of their murder before being sent around on Whatsapp - said there was "no way" those higher up in the Met were unaware of behaviour of the Charing Cross police officers.

"Cressida Dick's response to this report is an apology to the people of London," she told LBC's Charlotte Lynch.

"How many apologies do you make before they stop having any meaning at all?

"There is no way that the top of the tree was unaware of this behaviour."

Two inquiries are currently under way looking at the culture within the Met - one by Baroness Casey that was organised by the force itself, and a Home Office probe headed by Dame Elish Angiolini that is looking at the failures behind the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer.

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On Wednesday, the IOPC regional director for London told Nick Ferrari at Breakfast that the culture of racism and misogyny laid bare by the messages is present in police forces across the country.

"What we are seeing is these issues are not just isolated to one police force," he said.

"We've written last April to the National Police Chiefs Council to express our worries and concerns around what we are seeing exchanged on social media groups, Whatsapp groups.

"While this is a shocking case that speaks to some of the cultural issues within the Met, it's also fair to point out it is not just isolated to the Met."

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The messages were exposed after whistleblowers contacted the IOPC and on Tuesday the watchdog published them all in full.

It followed nine investigations into the behaviour of Metropolitan Police officers based in the Westminster team between 2016 and 2018, sparked by a later disproven claim that an officer had sex with a drunk person at a police station.

In the messages, officers made repeated jokes about rape, domestic violence, violent racism, and used homophobic language as well as derogatory terms for disabled people.

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Fourteen officers were investigated by the watchdog, of whom two were found to have a case to answer for gross misconduct.

One was sacked and another resigned before he would have been dismissed. Nine remain serving officers, while another is working as a contractor in a staff role.

IOPC regional director for London Sal Naseem said that the two accused of gross misconduct were the worst perpetrators, but could not confirm whether those still serving were responsible for any of the offensive comments published.

He told Good Morning Britain: "What I do know is that there were nine investigations here. The two officers who were sacked for gross misconduct were the worst perpetrators of some of these exchanges."