London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Sunday, Sep 28, 2025

Met Police commissioner: Sir Mark Rowley named as force's new leader

Met Police commissioner: Sir Mark Rowley named as force's new leader

Sir Mark Rowley has been named as the new commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, taking over the role vacated by Dame Cressida Dick.

Sir Mark, 57, served as head of the Met Police's counter-terrorism unit between 2014 and 2018, before leaving to take a role in private industry.

Dame Cressida stood down as commissioner in February following a series of scandals.

Sir Mark said he was "deeply honoured" to be appointed as commissioner.

In a statement, he said: "Our mission is to lead the renewal of policing by consent which has been so heavily dented in recent years, as trust and confidence have fallen.

"We will deliver more trust, less crime and high standards for London and beyond, and we will work with London's diverse communities as we together renew the uniquely British invention of 'policing by consent'."

Sir Mark will serve an initial five-year term, with an annual salary of just under £293,000.

In 2018 he was knighted after leading the national police response to the Manchester Arena bombing, the Westminster Bridge attack and the London Bridge attack.

Sir Mark began his police career as a constable in the West Midlands force in 1987, after graduating with a degree in mathematics from Cambridge University.

Between 2008 and 2011, he was the chief constable of Surrey Police, before joining the Met to become the assistant commissioner for specialist crime and operations.

Since leaving the Met Police, Sir Mark worked on security and policy projects including carrying out a review with the Commission for Countering Extremism.

He first applied to be commissioner in 2017, losing out to Dame Cressida.

Dame Cressida Dick resigned after Sadiq Khan criticised her handling of racist, misogynist and homophobic messages shared by a group of officers


The Met's first female commissioner resigned five months ago after Mayor of London Sadiq Khan said he had lost confidence in her leadership.

The final months of her tenure were marked by a series of scandals, including the murder of Sarah Everard by a serving policeman and Dame Cressida's handling of racist and homophobic messages shared by a group of officers at Charing Cross police station.


The challenges facing Sir Mark Rowley as the UK's top police officer are enormous. One element of the package, counter-terrorism, will be the easiest for him to return to, thanks to his years of work in that field.

The harder job is rebuilding trust in the Metropolitan Police which has been rocked by a series of scandals.

Like his predecessor, Dame Cressida Dick, he is academically thoughtful about the challenges of modern policing - but one of the key differences between the two of them is that Sir Mark has regularly thought not just about how to police - but how to communicate policing in order to build and maintain trust.

His first priority will be to come up with an action plan to get the force out of a form of special measures imposed by national inspectors of policing standards. That close oversight is known in the jargon as "engage".

But to win the trust of Londoners, Sir Mark knows he will have to find new and more effective ways of engaging with them too.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said of the new appointment: "I look forward to working closely with Sir Mark.

"This will be a challenging period, but with a focus on tackling neighbourhood crime and delivering the basics of policing, Sir Mark is committed to tackling the significant challenges confronting the force and to making London's streets safer by driving down crime and bringing more criminals to justice."

His appointment was broadly welcomed by former Met Det Supt Shabnam Chaudhri, who said Sir Mark had "a mountain to climb" to rebuild trust in the force, but added it was "really good" he had recently been working outside of the Met, which meant he was "completely fresh and untarnished".

Former shadow home secretary Diane Abbott said it was "disappointing that Priti Patel and Sadiq Khan decided to bring back Mark Rowley from retirement".

The Hackney North and Stoke Newington MP said of Sir Mark: "He spent much of his career in the Met. No evidence that he is a reformer. Missed opportunity."


Sir Mark Rowley spoke to BBC Breakfast in April 2022 about the challenges facing police


Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
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
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
Explosive Email Shows Sarah Ferguson Begged Forgiveness from Jeffrey Epstein After Taking His Money
Corrupt UK Politician Ed Davey Demands Elon Musk’s Arrest for Supporting Democracy
UK, Canada, and Australia Officially Recognise Palestine in Historic Shift
Alibaba Debuts Open-Source Deep Research Agent with Benchmarks Rivaling OpenAI
Marcos Faces Legacy-Defining Crisis as Flood Projects Scandal Sparks Massive Tide of Protests
China’s Micro-Drama Boom Turns Stalled Real Estate Projects into Lavish Film Sets
New Eye Drops Show Promise in Replacing Reading Glasses for Presbyopia
'Company Got 5,189 H-1B Visas, Then Laid Off 16,000 Americans': US Defends New $100,000 H-1B Visa Fee
Golf legend tells Omar she should be 'sent back to Somalia' after her Kirk comments
EU Set to Bar Big Tech from New Financial Data Access Scheme
China Bans Livestreaming and AI in Religion Amid Crackdown on Shaolin Temple Scandal
×