News just breaking – Boris has decided to stand down from the chairmanship of the Metropolitan Police Authority due to time pressures, obviously in favour of Kit Malthouse, who must presumably have a bit of time on his hands now he can’t push his silly airport ideas any more. So after all that kerfuffle with Deputy Mayors we’re basically back to the status quo ante, where the Mayor chairs TfL but not the MPA, and has a Chief of Staff. Plus ca change.
Back in February 2008, however, things were a bit different:
Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA)
Unlike Ken Livingstone, Boris Johnson would exercise his right as London mayor to chair the MPA.
So it’s another manifesto commitment shot in the head, then? It’s for times like this that Dave Hill’s online Boris manifesto archive was invented. Would be awful if the original pledge had somehow slipped down the memory hole. Here’s the crime one [PDF]
It is important for the Mayor to take a public lead, so I will chair the Metropolitan Police Authority. I will take personal responsibility. No offence will be too trivial to demand my attention. No challenge will be so big that I shrug my shoulders and pass the buck.
The fundamental problem with policing in London is that there is a lack of strong leadership, and our police force is hamstrung by political targets and excessive form-filling. This has resulted in a city we no longer feel safe in, and extra officers we do not see.
Boris has now apparently shrugged his shoulders permanently and the strong leadership role will now be palmed off onto the bumbling Kit Malthouse, with his obsessions with dangerous dogs and prostitutes cards (I noticed a good crop in a phone box next to the still-incomplete ‘shared space’ roadworks on Exhibition Road last week, by the way). This conveniently moves Boris out of the firing line on police number cuts, for which Kit (to his credit) has already stood up at least once to take the bullet on – they’re banking on a massive increase in volunteer policemen to keep costs down, numbers as high as 10,000 Specials by 2012 are talked about.
It’s hard not to see this as reneging on the manifesto, since it’s so clearly expressed that Boris will chair the MPa. However, the real reason is deeper – according to spies at MQT today the justification for this rowing back is the expected abolition of the MPA under a future Conservative Government, which means all the guff the BBC are printing about ‘not having enough time’ are rubbish. It’ll be interesting to see how the MPA now operates as a lame duck, particularly around who gets the Deputy job now Kit has moved up. Will Boris and Kit be spending their time setting up a shadow mechanism to take over later in the year rather than tackling the recent rise in firearms offences, rape and hate crime?
Update – the Liberal Democrats are the first to respond:
Dee Doocey, the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Policing Spokesperson and Member of the MPA, commenting on the Mayor’s resignation as Chair of the MPA said:
“This is welcome news as the Mayor has never been on top of this incredibly important job.
“I just hope that unlike Boris Johnson that Kit Malthouse actually reads and understands the Met’s budget and then sets out to immediately reverse the damaging cuts in police numbers which the Mayor has for so long denied.”
Update – the Greens are at it too:
The mayor made a clear commitment to Londoners in his election manifesto to personally take charge of the police authority. He has now gone back on his word, realising that being both mayor and chair of the MPA is just too much for one person to do properly.
It was an ill thought-out promise, and one that showed his lack of experience. The Met are facing difficult times ahead, with budgets being cut in all areas. The chair of the MPA needs to take the time to understand this complex organisation to provide effective leadership.
Elsewhere:
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Whilst I welcome the standing down of Boris (because Mr Malthouse is a preferred choice to the bumbling one) – I am concerned that we seem to have a police authority on which un-elected people sit.
I realise this isn’t a new thing – I believe it was there under Ken’s reign – but surely this cannot be right.
If you saw Charlie Brooker’s newswipe about the mis-information the MET sent out over the shooting of Charles De menezes you will understand why accountability is so vital in our police force.
So where is the line of accountability? – if I am smeared by an factually incorrect release by the MET’s press office – who will carry the can?
Last night, M’lady, who has been law abiding all her life – commented on the fact that she feels she can no longer trust the MET.
….this is indeed a sad and eye-watering endictment.
[...] on Boris Watch and Left Foot [...]
I saw this on the local news yesterday – and I am sure I heard Kit Malthouse say….
“Nothing has changed, the MPA are still accountable………yada yada yada…..tha mayor is still in control, I’m still his boss”
Yep – that’s right, a Freudian slip, but Kit seems to have let out who is really in charge down at City hall
I’m still hunting for a copy of the interview……
On the bright side this shoudl sink the final nail in the coffin of the Tory idea of elected national police authorities which would result in an expensive and non-productive forum.
Boris is “too busy”? Yet still he finds the time for his £250k a year writing gig.
Funny, that.
[...] men of business in charge and getting things done, it was all punctured by Boris suddenly giving up the chair of the MPA to Kit, which given the high profile of Boris’s crime policy has [...]