Cressida Dick and Sadiq Khan are at war over her £500,000 payoff plus £160,000-a-year pension

Cressida Dick and Sadiq Khan are at war over her £500,000 payoff plus £160,000-a-year gold-plated pension as ‘he tries to avoid handing over huge severance package’

Dick announced her shock retirement as Met commissioner on ThursdayNow she is in line for a payout of more than £500,000 and a £160,000 pensionBut according to reports, London Mayor Sadiq Khan is resisting the full amountHer resignation came after a string of scandals that have thrown Met into crisis 



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A row has broken out between Dame Cressida Dick and Sadiq Khan over the out-going Metropolitan Police Chief’s exit payoff, according to reports.

After her dramatic resignation on Thursday, Dame Cressida is in line for a payout of more than £500,000 on top of a £160,000-a-year gold-plated pension in what has been described as a ‘dreadful reward for failure’.

Under the terms of her two-year extended contract, signed in September, Dame Cressida, 61, can expect to receive her £246,109 annual salary with £3,074 benefits for the remaining 25 months she had left to serve until April 2024.

She will also receive a bumper pension payout because it is effectively the second time that she has ‘retired’ from the Metropolitan Police after clocking up nearly 37 years’ service.

According to The Times, both the Met and City Hall refused to comment on whether Dame Cressida would receive the full amount, but Mr Khan is said to be resisting handing over the huge severance package.

Furthermore, the newspaper reported that MPs and relatives of the victims affected by scandals Dame Cressida was involved in have called on Mr Khan to either refuse to offer her a pay off or fund the amount it himself.

A row has broken out between Dame Cressida Dick (left) and Sadiq Khan (right) over the out-going Metropolitan Police Chief’s exit payoff, according to reports

News of her payoff came amid an already raging row about Khan’s shock move to force out the Scotland Yard commissioner. 

It emerged last night that her deputy Sir Stephen House is also likely to leave at the same time, leaving Britain’s biggest force rudderless – with vacancies in four of the most important jobs in policing.

National Crime Agency boss Dame Lynne Owens retired on the grounds of ill health last year, and Her Majesty’s chief inspector of constabulary Sir Tom Winsor is expected to announce his retirement shortly.

Dame Cressida said she had ‘no choice’ but to quit on Thursday night after a bust-up with Mr Khan, who withdrew his support after a series of scandals surrounding the misogynistic and racist conduct of her officers.

On top of her potential payoff and pension, she can look forward to possibly earning a small fortune from lucrative consultancy work, or even taking on a new high-profile public role. 

There is also a chance that she may join her predecessor Bernard Hogan-Howe in the House of Lords where she could qualify for a daily £323 attendance allowance.

Hogan-Howe left the Met in 2016 with a £9million gold-plated pension giving him an annual taxpayer-funded income of £181,500 a year.

Alternatively, she may now choose to put her feet up at her £1million village home which she shares with her partner Helen, who is a retired Metropolitan Police inspector. 

Dame Cressida Dick arriving at New Scotland Yard, central London, on Friday – the day after she resigned as Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police after losing the backing of the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan

How to hire and fire a Yard boss 

Who has the power to appoint the commissioner?

Home Secretary Priti Patel will appoint the new Metropolitan Police commissioner. 

She has the final say, although the process requires her to consult London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who has said that he will be ‘working closely’ with her to find a successor to Dame Cressida.

Mr Khan has an ‘effective veto’ on the decision, because Miss Patel could not in practice appoint a Met chief with whom the mayor refused to work. 

The final choice will be subject to approval by the Queen.

Who has the power to fire a commissioner?

The Metropolitan Police commissioner is in the unique position for a senior police officer of being answerable to two political masters: the Home Secretary and the Mayor of London, who also holds the position of police and crime commissioner (PPC) for the capital. 

Dame Cressida had to report to Mr Khan on day-to-day policing matters and budget, while on national issues such as counter-terrorism she deferred to Miss Patel.

In the rest of the country, PPCs hold the power to hire and fire chief constables. 

But in the capital, the commissioner must have the confidence of both Home Secretary and Mayor or the position becomes untenable.

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Home Secretary Priti Patel was said to be fuming that Mr Khan did not consult her before leaving a gaping ‘void’ for her to fill. They were still not speaking about the situation yesterday, it is understood.

Senior police figures also questioned the ‘fishy’ timing of the Labour Mayor’s decision amid claims of a ‘stitch-up’ over the Partygate scandal, in which the Prime Minister could be implicated.

Confirming the pension Dame Dick will receive, Metropolitan Police Federation chairman Ken Marsh said: ‘When she has left she will receive an annual pension that amounts to two-thirds of her final salary, so it’ll be around £160,000.’

A City Hall source said: ‘There will be a due process and details about remuneration will be agreed in due course.’ Yesterday Susan Hall, Tory chairman of the London Assembly’s police and crime committee, said: ‘Cressida has been treated appallingly by Sadiq. She has been thrown under a bus. Of course she is entitled to a payoff. She has been effectively dismissed by the Mayor.

‘It will leave a void at the top as opposed to a properly managed handover, which is no way to run Britain’s biggest police service.’

But former Tory MP Harvey Proctor, who was falsely accused during the Met’s botched VIP sex abuse investigation Operation Midland, argued she should be denied the cash: ‘This is a dreadful reward for failure. It’s appalling that the public purse should have to foot the bill to the tune of over £500,000.’

Yesterday sources said Dame Cressida was heartbroken by the loss of her dream job and could still refuse the payoff because she is ‘not motivated by money’.

A senior police source suggested the timing of her departure could be linked to Partygate.

He said: ‘The pre-emptive move discredits her and the force, which gives Labour an opportunity to question the findings when the Partygate report comes out and claim it is a whitewash if Boris isn’t forced to quit.’ A Whitehall source added: ‘There’s something fishy going on. We are trying to work out what happened between Sadiq and Cressida.

‘Earlier this week he’d been saying she had ‘days and weeks’ to come up with a reform plan, and then barely a day later he cans her. It’s all very odd.’

But, referring to a report on the conduct of officers at Charing Cross police station released this month, a City Hall source said: ‘It has nothing to do with the investigation into Downing Street. 

‘Sadiq was disgusted and angry that the Independent Office for Police Conduct report took him back to the dark days of policing in the 1970s and 1980s. Change had been promised. It hadn’t been delivered.’ 

Dame Cressida’s departure follows a barrage of criticism of the force including over its handling of the case of Sarah Everard who was murdered by a serving Met officer.

Home Secretary Priti Patel was caught off guard by the decision, learning of it only when Dame Cressida rang her to say she had stood down – sparking a bitter row between City Hall and the Home Office.

The force has also been criticised for being slow to investigate reports of parties in Downing Street and Whitehall in breach of Covid restrictions.

The final straw, however, was a report by the police watchdog which exposed violently racist, misogynist and homophobic messages exchanged by officers based at Charing Cross police station. 

Home Secretary Priti Patel has warned the new Met chief must be prepared to tackle the ‘policing culture’ which has left the country’s biggest force reeling from a series of scandals.

Ms Patel, who is beginning the search for a successor to Dame Cressida, said it would require ‘strong and decisive leadership’ to rebuild public confidence in the force’s ‘integrity and professionalism’. 

In a statement, said she would be looking for someone who could deliver results for the public.

‘Following a series of appalling incidents and too many historical cases involving serving Met Police officers, it is clear that strong and decisive new leadership will be required to restore public confidence in our largest police force,’ she said.

‘The public in London and across the entire country must once again have confidence in the integrity and professionalism of the police officers who serve them.

‘Policing culture and conduct have rightly come under scrutiny. Be in no doubt that a new leader must tackle these institutional issues.’

She added: ‘I will appoint a Commissioner who will deliver for the public whom our police serve and represent. Beating crime, preventing crime, protecting our citizens, our streets and communities at a time when this Government is investing record sums into the police, is paramount.

‘And above all that’s what I – and the public across the country – will want from the country’s most senior police officer: someone focused on the basics of reducing violence in the city, tackling the abuse of women and girls, ridding our streets of drugs, knives and weapons, saving lives and protecting the public from the those who wish to do them harm.’

Home Office sources said Ms Patel was angered by Mr Khan’s failure to inform her that he had called Dame Cressida to a meeting on Thursday afternoon which she considered ‘rude and unprofessional’.

Despite his shortcomings at the Met, Bernard Hogan-Howe enjoys a £9million pension pot and owns two lavish homes. Pictured: Hogan-Howe walks his dog near his home in Dorset

Dame Cressida, however, chose not attend after reportedly being informed that Mr Khan had no confidence in her plans for reform.

Sources close to the mayor said that it had been a regular bilateral meeting and that it was up to Dame Cressida to inform Ms Patel of her decision herself.

Rank and file officers expressed dismay at Dame Cressida’s departure, with the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, Ken Marsh, saying she had been treated unfairly.

Mr Marsh told the PA news agency: ‘She was much loved across the rank and file of the Metropolitan Police Service.

‘We feel the way she has been treated is wholly unfair and we did believe that she was the person who could take us through this and bring us out the other side.’

But former Conservative MP Harvey Proctor, whose house was raided by officers from the Met’s failed Operation Midland, launched in reaction to false allegations by jailed fantasist Carl Beech about a murderous VIP paedophile ring, said he was delighted by the news.

‘It is now time to clean the Augean stables so that a full inquiry can be conducted on all her personal mistakes,’ he said.

Harriet Wistrich, director of the Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ) charity, said: ‘There were far too many stories of officers accused of violence and abuse still in their jobs, and of whistleblowers victimised instead of listened to.

‘Cressida Dick’s response to these series of stories has been wholly inadequate, and her description of Wayne Couzens as a ‘wrong un’ meaningless, next to the mounting evidence of multiple allegations of abuse and policing failures to tackle violence against women and racism.’    

The top cop dogged by controversy: String of disasters at the Met under Dame Cressida’s watch  

Jean Charles De Menezes pictured in Paris three months before he was shot dead on a train at Stockwell station on July 22, 2005

July 22, 2005: Jean Charles de Menezes is shot dead on a train at Stockwell Underground station in South London.

The shooting happened when counter-terrorism officers mistook the innocent electrician for one of the terrorists behind an attack on the capital a day earlier.

Mr de Menezes, a Brazilian working in the capital, was blasted in the head seven times by police at Stockwell station after being followed by officers from his home nearby. 

Mr de Menezes’s family led a long campaign calling for police officers to be prosecuted for the shooting and criticising Scotland Yard for its handling of the operation, which was led at the time by Dame Cressida.

Dame Cressida was cleared of all blame by later inquiries, but Mr de Menezes’ family expressed ‘serious concerns’ when she was appointed Met Commissioner in 2017.

The top policewoman told the Mail in 2018: ‘It was an appalling thing – an innocent man killed by police. Me in charge. Awful for the family and I was properly held to account. We learned every lesson that was to be learned’.

April 2017: Appointed as first female Metropolitan Police commissioner with a brief to modernise the force and keep it out of the headlines.

Carl Beech

April 2019: Extinction Rebellion protesters bring London to a standstill over several days with the Met powerless to prevent the chaos. Dame Cressida says the numbers involved were far greater than expected and used new tactics but she admits police should have responded quicker.

September 2019: Her role in setting up of shambolic probe into alleged VIP child sex abuse and murder based on testimony from the fantasist Carl Beech is revealed but she declines to answer questions.

2020: Official report into Operation Midland said Met was more interested in covering up mistakes than learning from them.

February 2021: Lady Brittan condemns the culture of ‘cover up and flick away’ in the Met and the lack of a moral compass among senior officers.

The same month a freedom of information request reveals an extraordinary spin campaign to ensure Dame Cressida was not ‘pulled into’ the scandal over the Carl Beech debacle.

Wayne Couzens 

March: Criticised for Met handling of a vigil for Sarah Everard, where officers arrested four attendees. Details would later emerge about how her killer, Wayne Couzens, used his warrant card to trick her into getting into his car. 

June: A £20million report into the Daniel Morgan murder brands the Met ‘institutionally corrupt’ and accuses her of trying to block the inquiry. Dame Cressida rejects its findings. Mr Morgan is pictured below. 

July: Police watchdog reveals three Met officers being probed over alleged racism and dishonesty.

Also in July she finds herself under fire over her woeful security operation at the Euro 2020 final at Wembley where fans without tickets stormed the stadium and others used stolen steward vests and ID lanyards to gain access.

August Dame Cressida facing a potential misconduct probe over her open support for Deputy Assistant Commissioner Matt Horne who could stand trial over alleged data breaches.

Daniel Morgan

December: Two police officers who took pictures of the bodies of murdered sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman (right) were jailed for two years and nine months each.

Pc Deniz Jaffer and Pc Jamie Lewis breached the cordon to take photographs of the bodies, which were then shared with colleagues and members of the public on WhatsApp. 

 Stephen Port

December: Dame Cressida apologises to the family of a victim of serial killer Stephen Port. Officers missed several chances to catch him after he murdered Anthony Walgate in 2014. 

Dame Cressida – who was not commissioner at the time of the murder – told Mr Walgate’s mother: ‘I am sorry, both personally and on behalf of The Met — had police listened to what you said, things would have turned out a lot differently’.’

January 2022: She faces a barrage of fresh criticism for seeking to ‘muzzle’ Sue Gray’s Partygate report by asking her to make only ‘minimal’ references to parties the Met were investigating. 

February 2022: Details of messages exchanged by officers at Charing Cross Police Station, which included multiple references to rape, violence against women, racist and homophobic abuse, are unveiled in a watchdog report.

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