Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey was among those calling for Cressida Dick (pictured) to go, saying 'hard-working Met officers… deserve far better'
There was growing opposition today at the prospect of Cressida Dick's likely reappointment as Metropolitan Police commissioner when her contract comes up for renewal in April.
Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey was among those calling for her to go, saying 'hard-working Met officers… deserve far better'.
He told MailOnline: 'They need new leadership that will change the culture and rebuild the public trust and confidence that officers need to do their jobs and keep us all safe.'
However, it is understood both Home Secretary Priti Patel and Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, support the extension.
One source told MailOnline there was 'no alternative' - suggesting that Dame Cressida wanted a longer term.
Senior figures want to 'use that time to make sure other candidates are ready'.
Meanwhile, a senior Tory MP said Scotland Yard desperately needed a new leader for Britain's biggest force after a series of scandals but the alternatives to Dame Cressida, 60, were far too 'woke'.
Dame Cressida suffered a fresh blow today after a landmark panel of victims of police corruption, incompetence and malpractice issued a bombshell letter to Boris Johnson calling for her head.
Led by Stephen Lawrence's trailblazing mother, Baroness Lawrence, and Lady Brittan, widow of Tory home secretary Leon Brittan, the signatories all give Dame Cressida a resounding vote of no confidence.
In the letter, revealed by the Daily Mail, they also demand an overhaul of the Met's senior team, 'urgent and long overdue' reform of the police complaints system and a shake-up of the 'unfit for purpose' Independent Office for Police Conduct.
If she is not ousted, Dame Cressida may also still down the £230,000-a-year role, paving the way for another senior officer to take her place.
Likely replacements range from a counter-terror chief who threatened to jail journalists and blamed terrorism on a lack of social mobility to a Merseyside cop who said violent criminals were 'not inherently bad people'.
The senior MP who fears the current crop of senior police may be 'too woke' told MailOnline: 'The problem with Cressida is she has presided over a series of disasters, and then says it is not her fault.
'It is difficult when we always take the same view that operational decisions are a matter for the police not politicians.
'She has presided over some humdingers, not just as commissioner but in her career. The time is right to get a new commissioner. But we don't want to replace her with ''commander woke''.'
Below, MailOnline scrutinises some of the likely candidates for the top job in UK policing.
Neil Basu: Former anti-terror chief who called for journalists to be prosecuted after publishing leaked cables criticising Trump
Neil Basu, who has been at the Met for nearly 30 years
Until recently the Met's head of counter-terrorism, Mr Basu is now assistant commissioner for specialist operations, which includes responsibilities around national security.
The 53-year-old, who has been at the Met for nearly 30 years, is the most senior serving British officer of Asian heritage, and was tipped for the top job in 2017 before losing out to Dame Cressida.
In February this year, he called for laws in the Equality Act 2010 that restrict positive discriminations to be relaxed in order to boost the number of BAME recruits.
He was immediately shot down by policing minister Kit Malthouse, while Home Secretary Priti Patel was also said to be against the idea.
Mr Basu faced fresh accusations of meddling in politics in July 2019, when he threatened to prosecute journalists for publishing leaked cables from Britain's ambassador to the US, Sir Kim Darroch.
Former Tory cabinet minister David Davis said the intervention 'strayed well beyond his brief', and represented an attack on the free Press.
Mr Basu's comments came after Scotland Yard launched a probe to find who leaked Sir Kim's memos calling the Trump administration 'clumsy and inept'.
The revelation called an international sensation and soured the Special Relationship.
Mr Basu, who has spent his whole career at the Met, made another controversial intervention in August that year when suggested homegrown terrorism was fuelled by a lack of social mobility and inclusion.
He said better education and opportunities for young people would do more to fight terrorism than 'the policing and state security apparatus put together' - adding that he was not trying to excuse any acts of violence.
He also said British Muslims should not be forced to 'assimilate', adding: 'Assimilation implies that I have to hide myself in order to get on. We should not be a society that accepts that.'
A 2019 profile of Basu in the Mail On Sunday described him as well-liked within the force and by intelligence officials at MI5.
But he has attracted criticism for some of his operational decisions, most notably as head of Operations Weeting, Elveden and Tuleta.
The three inquiries into phone hacking, computer hacking and alleged payments to police officers by newspapers cost around £19.5 million and were criticised for criminalising journalists.
Critics at the time said the Met could have spent the money going after terrorists, murderers and drug dealers.
Mr Basu also raised eyebrows when he criticised the Prevent programme – which tries to detect and deradicalise Muslim extremists – as 'toxic'.
'Government will not thank me for saying this, but an independent reviewer of Prevent... would be a healthy thing,' he said.
A Hindu, born to an Indian doctor father and a white British mother, he has said he has encountered racism over most of his life.
He grew up in Stafford, where he studied at Walton High School before reading economics at Nottingham University.
He became a Met police officer in 1992, serving first as a beat bobby in Battersea, South London, then swiftly moving through the ranks as a borough commander in Barnet, North London, and a Commander of South London in 2012.
His first major high-profile Met post came in 2014, when he was appointed Commander – Organised Crime and Gangs.
Three years later, as a Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Mr Basu was tested as Britain was hit by an unprecedented five terrorist attacks in one year, including the Manchester bombing that killed 22 people and the Westminster attack, which killed four, including a police officer.
The most-high profile counter-terrorism investigation overseen by Mr Basu in his current role was the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury last year, which the Met says was directed by the Kremlin.
A father with three sons, Mr Basu is married to Dr Nina Cope, a senior official at the National Crime Agency, often described as Britain's FBI.
Andy Cooke: Former Merseyside chief who insists even violent criminals are 'not inherently bad people'
Andy Cooke, who now serves with the police inspectorate
While head of Merseyside Police, Andy Cooke sparked anger when he said even violent criminals are 'not inherently bad people' and he'd rather pump billions into cutting poverty than upholding the law.
The officer, marking his retirement as Chief Constable of Merseyside Police, said if he was given a £5 billion budget to cut crime, he would spend £1 billion on crime and £4 billion on tackling poverty.
He now serves in the role of Her Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary and Inspector of Fire and Rescue Authorities in England. He will be overseeing inspections primarily in the North of England.
Mr Cooke was chief constable for five years, during which time he has overseen the jailing of dozens of multi-millionaire drug laws, including Liverpool's most notorious drugs boss Liam 'the Lam' Cornett, who was transported to court in a huge armed convoy every day, and the jet-setting Mulhare brothers, who were caught abroad in Thailand after being informed on by a 'supergrass'.
Murderers jailed during his tenure include George Leather, 60, who brutally killed his Asda worker wife, 56, by stabbing her 300 times in an 'episode of unspeakable and barbaric savagery', and Robert Child, 37, who was jailed for life for striking his 64-year-old mother Janice with a hammer 31 times.
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said of Mr Cooke's plans for the police budget: 'In that case would he be quite happy to sack 80% of the
