London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 09, 2025

Chief who challenged police on race ousted as Met commissioner candidate

Chief who challenged police on race ousted as Met commissioner candidate

Jon Boutcher, former head of the Bedfordshire force, has been told his application will no longer be considered

A police chief who criticised his colleagues for failures on racial justice has been ousted as a candidate to be the next commissioner of the Metropolitan police.

Jon Boutcher, the former head of the Bedfordshire force and a former Met senior counter-terrorism detective, applied three weeks ago to succeed Cressida Dick as Britain’s top officer. But the Guardian has learned that he has been told by the Home Office that his application will no longer be considered.

Boutcher left policing in 2019 but retained leadership of an investigation into a string of killings in Northern Ireland.

While a chief constable, Boutcher was in the vanguard of those who realised policing still had huge problems with race, at a time when many chiefs were downplaying them.

Only after the murder of George Floyd in the United States in May 2020 did chiefs accept that large-scale problems continued here and merited radical reforms. In a 2018 Guardian interview, Boutcher said of making policing less white-dominated: “It’s not rocket science, increasing the numbers of BME [black, minority and ethnic] officers. It’s about having a genuine commitment, empowering people to make it happen and throwing your weight behind it.”

He led for police chiefs in England and Wales on race and, also in 2018, said: “My challenge to policing is that the pace of change is too slow. I think it’s about commitment at a senior leadership level. I don’t accept that everything has been done … There have been the words, but not the actions.

“The police establishment need challenging on race … If we don’t remember the lessons of history, then there is a danger you repeat the mistakes of history. Racial disparity in policing undermines legitimacy and threatens policing by consent.”

In 2019 he also attacked government cuts for damaging the fabric of society: “I’m not a liberal-hearted, lefty softie. But let us police those who want to damage our society and choose to damage our society, but provide the support for those who are caught by circumstance and give them pathways away from crime. That needs more money. Let us concentrate on those who choose to be criminals.”

Boutcher was a career detective and led investigations for Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command, including the hunt for men who tried to bomb London on 21 July 2005 and the investigations into the attempted car bombing of London’s Haymarket in 2007 and the Glasgow airport attack.

The next commissioner will be chosen by the home secretary, who has to show due regard for the views of London’s mayor. The job advert for the Met commissioner said the force needed radical reform to boost flagging public confidence and rectify “serious failings”.

Among those who applied is Mark Rowley, a former head of counter-terrorism who left the Met in 2018. A former chief constable of the Surrey force, he is seen as the favourite to be the next commissioner.

Also waiting to see if he has got through to the next stage is Shaun Sawyer, the head of Devon and Cornwall police, who steps down in August as chief constable.

The only Met leader to apply is assistant commissioner Nick Ephgrave. Mike Bush, the former commissioner of police in New Zealand, who led the force during the Christchurch terrorist massacre, has also applied.

The news of the thwarting of Boutcher’s attempt to reach the top of policing comes days after the Guardian revealed that Neil Basu had pulled out of the race to be the next director general of the National Crime Agency.

Downing Street intervened to halt the process to select the next leader of the NCA after Basu and Graeme Biggar were selected by an expert panel to be the final two candidates. The former Met commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe is believed to be No 10’s preferred candidate.

Basu had annoyed the government with comments he made about the need for greater action on racial justice. He dropped his candidacy after a senior Home Office official told him no appointment would be made and that the post would be re-advertised.

Boutcher is currently leading Operation Kenova, which is examining the role of “Stakeknife”, a double agent who was the head of IRA’s internal security unit while working for British intelligence, and was allegedly implicated in murders and torture.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×