Sadiq Khan has been accused of "playing politics" after forcing out Dame Cressida Dick, the first female Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
The country's most senior police officer tendered her shock resignation last night after the Mayor of London said he was "not satisfied" with her plans to change the culture at Scotland Yard.
Dame Cressida, who led the force since 2017, said in a statement: "It is clear that the Mayor no longer has sufficient confidence in my leadership to continue. He has left me no choice."
Andy Hayman, the Met's former Assistant Commissioner for Special Operations, accused the mayor of "playing politics" and told LBC: "Sadiq Khan hasn't got a clue what it's like to run a police service, let alone the Met."
Susan Hall, the chairman of London Assembly police and crime committee, told the Today programme Sadiq Khan had handled the situation "extremely badly".
But Dal Babu, a former Met chief superintendent, said: "I think the writing was on the wall, Cressida has had five years to put her house in order and failed. We need to acknowledge the shortcomings that have been there and trust in police has hit the floor."
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Neil Coyle has been suspended by Labour after he was accused of making a racist comment towards a journalist.
The MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark was reported to Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Commons Speaker, after appearing to link Henry Dyer - a journalist of British-Chinese heritage - to a Chinese spy who funded another MP.
It has since been alleged that Mr Coyle said to Mr Dyer, a journalist at the website Insider, that he looked "like you've been giving renminbi" to Barry Gardiner.
A Labour spokesperson said: "The Labour Party expects the highest standards of behaviour from all our MPs and we take allegations of this sort very seriously.
"Accordingly the Chief Whip has now suspended the Labour whip from Neil Coyle pending an investigation."
Sir Keir Starmer has once again signalled Labour's support for Nato in the wake of his visit to Brussels yesterday with John Healey, the shadow defence secretary.
"With my leadership, the Labour Party today is as committed to peace across Europe as it was in 1949, when Ernest Bevin signed the Nato Treaty," Sir Keir wrote.
"Visiting Nato with John, we reaffirmed Labour's support of Ukraine and Britain's allies."
In a newspaper article yesterday, Sir Keir insisted Labour had always been the party of Nato.
It emerged during the 2017 general election campaign that Jeremy Corbyn, his predecessor, branded Nato a "danger to world peace" and a "major problem" in January 2011.
The Welsh First Minister has announced that self-isolation rules in Wales will be kept "for the time being" amid an easing of Covid restrictions by the end of next month.
In a statement, Mark Drakeford said that "the improving public health situation" and the country's "incredible vaccination programme" means that some of the protections in place can be relaxed.
Covid passes to enter large indoor and outdoor events, nightclubs, cinemas, theatres and concert halls will be scrapped from next Friday, as well as face masks in some indoor venues.
From February 28, the requirement for face coverings to be worn in indoor public places - apart from on public transport, in healthcare and in retail - will be removed.
The First Minister said that if the situation continues to improve, that the Government "hopes to be able to remove the requirement to wear masks by the end of March".
India McTaggart has this report
Peter Mandelson has suggested that hard-Left Labour MPs should be deselected if they refuse to back Keir Starmer’s policies.
Speaking at an event by the Reform Scotland think-tank yesterday, the former Labour spin doctor said it was "essential" to remove the influence of Momentum in the party.
He focused on outspoken critics of Sir Keir the corbynite Socialist Campaign Group, which includes members such as John McDonnell and Diane Abottt.
It comes after members of Labour’s Left managed to oust the leader of Newcastle City Council, who was an ally of Sir Keir and served in the role for more than a decade.
Labour spin doctor: 'There can be no going back'
Guto Harri has deleted a social media post endorsing John Major's criticism of Boris Johnson, rounding off an eventful first week at No 10.
Mr Harri, who was brought into Downing Street last weekend as part of changes to the Prime Minister’s top team in the wake of the Sue Gray report, shared a tweet referring to “Johnson acolytes”.
He hastily deleted the retweet from his profile late on Thursday night, according to reports in Playbook and the Spectator.
It came after Sir John launched an attack on Boris Johnson on Thursday, alleging he had broken lockdown rules and “shredded” the UK’s reputation on the international stage during the Russia-Ukraine border crisis.
Read more: PM's new comms chief hastily removes retweet
Rishi Sunak told Sky News he has not received a questionnaire from the police over alleged parties at Downing Street.
Asked "are you expecting to receive one?", the Chancellor smiled and said "no... well I don't know."
And on whether he believed that he had broken lockdown rules, Mr Sunak said "no" as he insisted Boris Johnson "has my total support".
Watch the Chancellor's comments below - and keep an eye out for the body language towards the end:
Boris Johnson will not bill the taxpayer for legal advice on the "partygate" saga, Downing Street has made clear - raising the question of how any such guidance is being financed, writes Ben Riley-Smith, our Political Editor.
Number 10 has not said whether the Prime Minister has hired a private lawyer to help him navigate the police investigation into claims of lockdown-breaking parties in government buildings.
At times in recent weeks, Mr Johnson has delivered carefully worded defences for the gatherings and his attendance at some of them, given he has denied Covid rule-breaking.
The Prime Minister said he "implicitly" believed a drinks gathering in the Downing Street garden in May 2020, for which staff had been urged to "bring your own booze", was a work event.
Full story: Questions remain over any legal advice
A former Met Assistant Commissioner asked "come on, who'd want it?" when asked about who will fill the top job now vacated by Dame Cressida Dick.
Andy Hayman also claimed the behaviour of Sadiq Khan in the last few days had been "disgraceful".
"You don't start pillorying a senior appointment like that in public. I mean that makes life very awkward. To have a conversation behind closed doors is one thing, but not to do that, and that's just people playing politics and he hasn't got a clue what it's like to run a police service, let alone the Met.
"To have these suggestions that suddenly overnight, they're going to be able to find someone who is going to be able to sort this out, that's just in cloud-cuckoo-land."
Mr Hayman called for an "operational cop who's not going to take any nonsense from the politicians".
The Metropolitan Police has pledged to complete its investigation into alleged breaches of Covid rules at government gatherings “promptly” after receiving material requested from Sue Gray’s team.
An initial report led by the senior civil servant into lockdown parties in Downing Street was released on February 1, but Ms Gray’s report could not be released in full due to a criminal investigation which was eventually opened up by the Met.
The Metropolitan Police investigation is exploring numerous claims that staff in Downing Street and Whitehall breached coronavirus rules by hosting illegal gatherings when the rest of the country was in lockdown.
A total of 12 gatherings, relating to eight separate dates, are now being investigated by Scotland Yard.
Martin Evans explains the main points of the investigation
A Labour MP has been reported to a parliamentary complaints body after he was accused of making a racist comment towards a journalist.
Neil Coyle was reported to the Commons Speaker after he appeared to link a journalist of British-Chinese heritage, Henry Dyer, to a Chinese spy who funded another Labour MP, while in a parliamentary bar.
Mr Coyle has been banned from Stranger’s Bar on the parliamentary estate after he told a Conservative MP to "f— off and lose some weight" and got into a drunken argument with a staff member about Brexit.
The Mail on Sunday reported that the MP for Bermondsey and Old Southwark had shouted at a Labour researcher who said that Brexit had been "fine" for the UK.
Tony Diver, our Political Correspondent, has more on this story
Dame Cressida Dick said that with “huge sadness” she will stand aside as Metropolitan Police Commissioner because “it is clear” that London Mayor Sadiq Khan “no longer has sufficient confidence in my leadership to continue”.
The first female head of Scotland Yard made the shock announcement following a string of controversies that have dogged her recent time in the job.
Dame Cressida, who was appointed Met Commissioner in 2017, was awarded a two year extension to her contract in September.
In full: 'I am very optimistic about the future for the Met'
The transport minister has confirmed the criminal investigation into a dozen different alleged parties across Downing Street and government during lockdown will be unaffected by the resignation of Cressida Dick.
Robert Courts told Sky News: "The police are very used to handling matters where there are different partners. They’re completely independent, I have complete confidence in their ability to operationally carry out an investigation. That will not be affected by the role we’re talking about."
This was echoed by London Assembly member Susan Hall (see 7.58am for more of her comments), who told Today: "She wouldn’t have been dealing with [partygate] anyway, all the work that is in progress will continue.
"All policing works will continue, whatever they are, of course they will."
Anthony Walgate was a young man who liked to dream big, writes Gordon Rayner. Even as a schoolboy in Hull he had ambitions to start his own clothing label, to get rich and famous, and at the age of 23 he was on his way, with four years at fashion schools in London under his belt.
'What would he be doing now? I wish I could know'
The partner of a victim of Stephen Port has said Dame Cressida Dick "needed to go" as he called for an investigation into the Met officers who dealt with the case to be reopened.
Port - currently serving life in prison - killed Anthony Walgate, 23, Gabriel Kovari, 22, Daniel Whitworth, 21, and Jack Taylor, 25, with overdoses of the drug GHB between June 2014 and September 2015, dumping their bodies near his east London flat. All of Port's victims were gay.
Ricky Waumsley, the partner of Whitworth, said his meeting with Dame Cressida before Christmas "went okay" but admitted he "didn't have much faith in her".
"There's so much homophobic, sexist and racist stuff going on within the Met Police right now that I don't think she is capable of sorting out these issues. My first thought was about time, she definitely needed to go," he told the Today programme, and urged the Met to reopen an inquiry into its handling Port's killings.
The jury at an inquest into the deaths was not allowed to consider whether homophobia on the part of the police played a role in the botched investigation, but a group of MPs is now demanding a public inquiry into claims of institutional homophobia at the Met.
One former Met Commissioner used to say that it was three strikes and you were out, writes Charles Hymas, our Home Affairs Editor. It is an adage that Dame Cressida Dick appeared, until last night, to have proved wrong.
"She has had multiple flesh wounds and strikes but because she is personable, resilient, presents well in the corridors of power and is liked by her frontline officers, she survived," said one former colleague.
For at least the past year - and in some quarters longer than that - she has faced demands for her resignation over a catalogue of blunders and crises that have befallen her force while under her watch.
However, it is the failure to get to grips with the misogyny, sexism and racism exposed within the Met Police in the aftermath of the horrific rape and murder of Sarah Everard by one of her own officers that has proved to be her undoing.
The jailing of two officers for taking pictures of the corpses of two murdered sisters was followed quickly by the sickening sexism and racism at Charing Cross police station exposed by the watchdog, the Independent Office for Police Conduct.
Profile: 'Bereft of strategy, bereft of vision... events have overtaken her'
Dal Babu, a former chief superintendent in the Met, insisted the "writing was on the wall" for Dame Cressida Dick.
Mr Babu has been a vocal critic of Dame Cressida's tenure, and last month attacked a "culture of impunity within forces" that he alleged favour "crisis management" in lieu of policing.
"Cressida has had five years to put her house in order and failed," he told Kay Burley at Breakfast. "We need to acknowledge the shortcomings that have been there and trust in police has hit the floor, it’s gone down and down and down. We need someone new who’s able to do this in a more effective way."
Mr Babu likened tensions between Sadiq Khan and Dame Cressida to a "football manager situation" whereby the chairman says he has full confidence in the manager, only to sack him shortly after.
While issues such as "partygate" were ones that she had no control in, he added there were also decisions made by Dame Cressida "which seem quite difficult to understand".
Susan Hall, the chairman of London Assembly police and crime committee, told the Today programme Sadiq Khan had handled the situation "extremely badly".
"Confidence in the police at the moment is at an all-time low and this hasn’t helped either," she told the Today programme.
"The way he said to the media that he’d put her on notice, he should have been talking behind closed doors. He also renewed her contract a couple of months ago. I feel this has been, as usual by Sadiq Khan, handled extremely badly."
Ms Hall said 99 per cent of police are "very good, brave officers" who have been "absolutely rocked" by a report published at the start of this month which revealed evidence of violent misogyny, racism and bullying among 14 officers based at Charing Cross police station.
"It will leave a void at the top instead of a properly managed handover, which is no way to run a service like this, no way to run the Metropolitan Police."
The story that shocked the nation last night continues to dominate the news agenda, as Sadiq Khan is accused of "playing politics" over Dame Cressida Dick's sudden resignation from the Met Police.
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