Who are the contenders to replace Cressida Dick as head of the Met?

Speculation has already begun about who will replace Dame Cressida Dick as the Metropolitan Police commissioner.

Dame Cressida announced on Thursday that she would be stepping down after losing the backing of London Mayor Sadiq Khan in the wake of a series of scandals during her tenure leading Britain’s biggest police force.

– Matt Jukes

Matt Jukes, an assistant Metropolitan Police commissioner currently working as head of counter-terrorism, is seen by many commentators as a likely contender.

Mr Jukes first joined South Yorkshire Police as a Pc before moving to South Wales Police and working his way up the ranks.

So unlike Dame Cressida, who never ran her own force before becoming commissioner, he has prior experience at the helm.

– Neil Basu

Neil Basu, another assistant commissioner who previously worked as the head of counter-terrorism, is also thought to be a likely candidate.

Mr Basu has spent his entire career serving in the Metropolitan Police.

In a 2019 interview with The Guardian, he said that if someone used the racially offensive comments Boris Johnson had, they would not be admitted into the police force.

But Mr Basu is popular among officers and is still widely seen as capable.

He is also the most senior police officer of Asian heritage and would be the first minority ethnic commissioner.

– Lucy D’Orsi

Another potential replacement is Lucy D’Orsi, the Chief Constable of the British Transport Police.

She previously worked as a senior officer at the Metropolitan Police.

During her career, she was in charge of the police response to the Beaufort Park fire in 2006 and she headed up security during Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s visit to the UK in 2015.

She would be following in Dame Cressida’s footsteps as the second woman to become Metropolitan Police commissioner.

– Nick Ephgrave

Nick Ephgrave, assistant commissioner for frontline policing, is also in with a chance of getting the top job.

In 2019, he returned to the Metropolitan Police as an assistant commissioner.

Like Mr Jukes, he also already has experience leading a police force.

– Sir Stephen House

Sir Stephen House is the Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, just below Dame Cressida, and so is a natural contender for the job.

However, during his tenure leading Police Scotland he faced criticism for his use of armed patrols as well as stop and search.

He eventually resigned in 2015 over the deaths of Lamara Bell and John Yuill, who lay undiscovered in a wrecked car for three days despite a call from a member of the public.

But in 2018, he became an assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan Police and was promoted to deputy commissioner by the end of the year.

– Helen Ball

– Stephen Watson

He was appointed to Merseyside Police in 2006 on promotion to Chief Superintendent and joined the Met in 2011 as Commander for the East Area.

He became chief constable of Greater Manchester Police in May 2021.

– Simon Byrne

In 2011 he returned to the Met as assistant commissioner for Territorial Policing. He was appointed chief constable of Police Service Northern Ireland in 2019.

– Martin Hewitt

He was appointed chairman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) in April 2019.