An official inquiry will find that the Mayor of London wrongly sacked Cressida Dick as Metropolitan Police Commissioner, The Guardian has learned.
The findings come from a special commission led by Sir Tom Winsor, the former chief inspector of police, following Dick’s decision to resign in February.
A draft report ordered by the government finds that Sadiq Khan did not follow due process and that Dick was treated unfairly, calling the mayor’s actions and decision-making “irrational” and “unreasonable”.
A furious Khan is consulting lawyers and believes the report is biased and flawed. The report also says the mayor’s treatment of Dick was “oppressive” and that he subjected her to unfair pressure.
In a letter of protest to Home Secretary Priti Patel, Khan said Winsor had publicly defended Dick, whose post ended in a series of scandals engulfing the Met.
Khan wrote: “While Sir Tom has inexplicably refused to provide me with a final version of his report, his draft conclusions … were clearly biased and in many cases outside their terms of reference and not supported by the evidence.”
The letter accused Winsor of treating the claims of Dick and his allies about his treatment as true: “From the draft which was furnished, and from subsequent exchanges, it appears that he intends to present as factual accounts of the “previous commissioner and his team, while ignoring or downplaying the extensive contradictory evidence provided.”
Winsor is expected to argue that he did a thorough job and was fair and balanced, with his conclusion based on the facts. His report reached the Home Secretary earlier this week and may be published next week.
A Home Office spokesman said: “A decision on whether to publish the report will be taken in due course.”
Winsor was chosen to carry out the investigation by Patel after he stood down in March as chief inspector of police after 10 years.
Khan made his decision after losing confidence in Dick’s understanding of the depth of the Met’s problems and his ability to prevent the force from losing public support during his five years in office.
Two months after Dick’s departure, the Met suffered the humiliation of being placed in special measures for the first time since its foundation in 1829. The decision was made by Winsor’s successor as Chief Inspector .
As well as being Mayor of London, Khan is the capital’s Police and Crime Commissioner, and is jointly responsible with the Home Secretary for policing in London. After a public confrontation with him, Dick chose to resign rather than attend a meeting with Khan, after he made it clear that his reform plans were inadequate.
In his letter to Patel, Khan said of Winsor: “He appears to have omitted many facts relevant to [Dick’s] she leaves as commissioner, including any of the disgusting scandals that happened under her watch, including the photograph [by force members] of murdered sisters Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman and then sharing them with other serving officers, and the killing of Sarah Everard by a serving officer.
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“Sir Tom Winsor has acknowledged almost none of the litany of scandals that have occurred over the past two years, many of which we discussed at the time, which led to my loss of confidence in the commissioner.”
Several sources close to Patel, in the months before Dick’s departure, told the Guardian of their deep concern about the Met under Dick. Crucially, neither the Home Office nor Boris Johnson’s Downing Street tried to publicly save her when she fell out with the mayor.
The procedure for dismissing a commissioner is set out in legislation, which requires the mayoress to state in writing the reasons for her loss of confidence. Khan did not, arguing that the requirement did not apply because Dick chose to resign rather than attend a meeting with him.
A spokesman for the mayor said: “The mayor lost confidence in the commissioner after a series of scandals saw confidence in the Met police plummet to an all-time low. We will not be commenting on leaked draft reports.”
Winsor’s report represents a victory for Dick and his allies. His deputy, Sir Stephen House, had demanded the inquiry, claiming that due process had not been followed.
Dick left with a severance package of £166,000, negotiated with the City Council. His replacement, Sir Mark Rowley, will start as commissioner on 12 September.
Winsor declined to comment.