Rowley, 57, a former counter-terrorism chief who left the Met in 2018, was chosen over Met assistant commissioner Nick Ephgrave – the other candidate to make the shortlist of two. He returns to find Britain’s biggest force facing one of its worst crises since it was founded in 1829. It has been placed in special measures by the police inspectorate for the first time in its history. The last commissioner, Cressida Dick, was ousted in February after falling out with Sadiq Khan. The London mayor was not convinced she could restore crumbling public trust, which has been rocked by a series of scandals, leadership failures and poor victim service performance. The Met’s commissioner is formally appointed by Royal Warrant from the Queen. The choice was made by Home Secretary Priti Patel, who had to take into account the views of Khan, who is also the capital’s police and crime commissioner. The announcement came weeks ahead of schedule. A Whitehall spokesman said this was because the prime minister’s office, which is usually involved in major law enforcement appointments despite having no official role, was unable to intervene this week because of the crisis surrounding Boris Johnson. It followed a process in which a panel sifted the applicants down to two after reading their job proposals. Rowley and Effgrave then took part in oral interviews, before facing further questions from former police minister Keith Malthouse, followed by the mayor of London on Wednesday. Patel held her interviews on Thursday, having been embroiled in the Johnson saga the previous day. Rowley laid out a 100-day plan to begin turning the Met around, knowing more scandals and setbacks were to come, with some in the force’s leadership in denial of the serious problems facing the agency. Rowley applied in 2017 but lost out to Dick, and has been working in the private sector since leaving policing four years ago. He is a former Surrey chief constable and spent most of his policing career outside the Met, starting with the West Midlands force. Even his policing critics accept that he is intellectually astute, but he now faces the greatest set of challenges any commissioner has faced in modern times. The Met commissioner’s salary is £293,000 a year. Since Dick’s departure, her deputy, Sir Stephen House, has been acting commissioner. A number of Met leadership are expected to leave in the coming months. Ephgrave was a surprise to make the bottom two, having been a trusted lieutenant during Dick’s five years in charge of the Met, where the force’s reputation plummeted. In the wake of Met officer Wayne Couzens being jailed for a full life term after abducting and murdering Sarah Everard, Ephgrave said women could manually flag down a bus if they were concerned about an officer approaching them on the road. He added that the scandal meant the Met had to “examine our own culture”. Subscribe to First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every weekday morning at 7am Scandals over race, homophobia and the treatment of women have dogged the Met, but it was the management’s handling and response to them that worried the government and City Hall, as well as Dick’s perceived defensiveness. Rowley joined the Met in 2011 and by 2014 had become head of counter-terrorism, dealing with the threat of Islamic State and its ability to attract young Britons to its campaign of violence. This was combined with the rise of the far right. He was in charge and under severe pressure in 2017 after a wave of attacks hit the UK, centered on London and Manchester. Rowley is married to a barrister and has a degree in mathematics from St Catharine’s College, Cambridge.
