Ben Kentish is 'not convinced' that Mark Rowley can continue leading the Met
21 March 2023, 20:18
Ben Kentish is 'not convinced' that Mark Rowley can continue leading the Met
Commenting on the findings of the Casey report, Ben Kentish has lost faith in Met Commissioner Mark Rowley's ability to "fix fundamental failures".
As the fallout from the Casey report continues to unfold, Ben Kentish has "questions" regarding Mark Rowley's suitably to maintain the role of Met Commissioner.
Ben said: "I am not convinced that the people who have done that year after year can now be the same people tasked with turning this around.
"Everybody I know that has worked with or alongside Mark Rowley has only good things to say about him. I have no doubt that he is a decent bloke and a decent senior officer.
"But I cannot see how you can preside over fixing such fundamental failures if you yourself have been involved in presiding over the culture that enabled them in the first place."
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Ben went on to say: "For much of the last decade Mark Rowley has held senior positions with the Met. He was an Assistant Commissioner between 2011-2018. He led one of the very units that Baroness Casey reserved most criticism for.
"Can he really be the man asked to sort this all out?" Ben doubted.
He stated: "Mark Rowley said this morning that while he accepts Casey's findings, he admitted he hadn't noticed the extent of the problems even within his own team.
"Even though presumably they must've been there, right in front of his eyes, day after day.
"That to me raises some pretty big questions about whether he himself may be part of the problem. He also said that he does not accept Baroness Casey's claim that the Met is institutionally racist, sexist, and homophobic and instead he prefers the word systemic."
Calling out the Commissioner directly, Ben said: "I'm sorry Commissioner, but read the room... if you are quibbling over the conclusions and the language that she uses and quibbling over the findings, then I'm afraid you are part of the problem."
