The Conservative Party has seized control of Scotland Yard from the Home Office according to a senior aide to Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London.
Kit Malthouse, the deputy mayor for policing, said that he and Johnson have their "hands on the tiller" of the Metropolitan police and would no longer act as a rubber stamp to whatever the force proposed.
The Tories say they have put more focus on tackling knife crime and dangerous drugs and put more officers on patrol since Johnson took over.
Malthouse also disclosed that a key document setting out the Met's priorities was no longer written in Scotland Yard and then approved by politicians but was written by a team headed by him and Johnson.
He added that Tory frontbenchers were now studying whether the London model could be used as a blueprint for its approach to law and order across Britain if they were to win next year's general election.
The revelations have led to concerns that the new approach amounts to the politicisation of policing.
In an interview with The Guardian Malthouse said he felt that the police should be answerable to elected politicians, who should be allowed to press them to do things that would be electorally popular........
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/6130486/Conservatives-we-have-seized-control-of-Scotland-Yard.html
Kit Malthouse, the deputy mayor for policing, said that he and Johnson have their "hands on the tiller" of the Metropolitan police and would no longer act as a rubber stamp to whatever the force proposed.
The Tories say they have put more focus on tackling knife crime and dangerous drugs and put more officers on patrol since Johnson took over.
Malthouse also disclosed that a key document setting out the Met's priorities was no longer written in Scotland Yard and then approved by politicians but was written by a team headed by him and Johnson.
He added that Tory frontbenchers were now studying whether the London model could be used as a blueprint for its approach to law and order across Britain if they were to win next year's general election.
The revelations have led to concerns that the new approach amounts to the politicisation of policing.
In an interview with The Guardian Malthouse said he felt that the police should be answerable to elected politicians, who should be allowed to press them to do things that would be electorally popular........
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/6130486/Conservatives-we-have-seized-control-of-Scotland-Yard.html
