Ken Livingstone responds to Met Police chief resignation

In response to Met Police chief Sir Paul Stephenson’s resignation this evening, Ken Livingstone says the police force in London is moving from one crisis to another:

“Boris Johnson has now lost two commissioners in one term, whilst he has set about cutting police numbers and is forcing local police sergeants to reapply for their own jobs. Under this mayor the Met is being pushed from one crisis to another.

“Sir Paul has gone, Rebekah Wade has resigned and has been arrested, Andy Coulson has been arrested, Neil Wallis has been arrested, yet the Mayor has made no apology for smearing the phone-hacking allegations as a ‘song and dance about nothing.’

“Sir Paul Stephenson is the Police Commissioner Boris Johnson wanted – his appointment flows directly from Johnson’s high-profile ousting of the previous Commissioner Sir Ian Blair. That fact binds Johnson very closely in to decisions taken by senior figures at the Met.

“The mayor needs to get his house in order and end the culture of crisis that has led to a revolving door at New Scotland Yard. He must institute a swift reshuffle of his City Hall team so that the policing deputy who has overseen so much chaos is replaced, and he must end the police cuts and plan to make police sergeants reapply for their own jobs that threaten Londoners’ security.

“Tim Godwin should immediately become the Acting Police Commissioner to take London through the 2012 Games so that there is no vacuum between now and 2012.”