Reaction to Met chief appointment

Sir Paul Stephenson had been deputy commissioner for four years

Over the past few years, the Met has faced a number of controversies under the leadership of Sir Ian Blair, including the fatal shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes and alleged racism in the force.

Sir Paul, who is widely regarded as a common-sense police officer, said he was "hugely proud" of his appointment.

In an extremely strong field of candidates, Sir Paul stood out at every stage in a long and testing process.

He impressed me with his strong vision and his approach to tackling the challenges that lie ahead for the Met and for the police service across the country at a time of significant reform.

In the last few years as deputy commissioner in London, Sir Paul has been at the heart of policing the capital and his understanding of what's needed to combat terrorism and serious and violent crime will be invaluable in his new role.

But Sir Paul also has a strong record in driving neighbourhood policing as chief constable in Lancashire and he brings his experience from Merseyside and Northern Ireland to the job as well.

I believe Sir Paul offers the expertise and the leadership needed to inspire confidence across the entire police service and most importantly amongst the people of London.

I know he's won the confidence and support of everybody during this interview process and I wish him all the best in his new job.

There has been a very, very large measure of agreement across the board that Sir Paul was the outstanding candidate.

What Londoners need is a man who's going to produce common-sense policing, who is going to deliver results, who's going to focus on driving down crime across the city and on inspiring trust in communities across London, and above all, in inspiring confidence in Londoners that their city is getting ever safer.

That's what Londoners need and that's what they're going to get in Sir Paul Stephenson.

We congratulate Sir Paul on his appointment and wish him well as the new commissioner.

His big challenge will be to restore the reputation and independence of the Metropolitan Police.

In Sir Paul Stephenson we have a new commissioner with an impressive record of tackling crime, successfully leading a large police force and working to improve the relationship between the police and the public.

I have no doubt that with Sir Paul at the helm of the country's biggest police force, we will take back the streets, make the capital safer for our kids and improve the everyday quality of life across London.

I am pleased we have a commissioner who the mayor, home secretary, prime minister and the Metropolitan Police Authority can stand foursquare behind.

He brings a wealth of professionalism and experience in UK policing into this challenging role.

The business of policing our capital, protecting Londoners and leading the Met is in good hands.

Sir Paul brings the continuity of his experience at the Met over the past four years, during a period of extraordinary challenges in areas from counter-terrorism to neighbourhood policing.

However, he is also a strong reformer - and as head of the Acpo (Association of Chief Police Officers) Crime business area drove through revisions to the way in which intelligence is handled and homicide and serious crime investigated by police forces nationally.

As a strong voice within Acpo over many years he has a keen understanding of the challenges facing the direction and development on the police service nationwide.

A lot of us had worries that Boris might try and get someone in who would be out of touch with London's policing needs but they ended up with the top two candidates and either of them would have been excellent.

Any future mayor would have no problem working with either of them and Sir Paul has the advantage of having been working closely with Sir Ian Blair over the past three and a half years.

When you look back over Sir Ian's reign as commissioner - the number of gaffes he made, the number of issues he faced, it may have been better to have a new broom.

Having said that Sir Paul is a no-nonsense individual, he's not interested in negotiating.

He certainly delivered results when he was chief constable of Lancashire, but I think the necessary reforms of the police force are going to take a back seat under his commissionership.

He is more of a right-wing commissioner than Sir Ian Blair - some people would say it would be difficult for any commissioner to be more left-wing than Ian Blair.

There will be a lot of rank and file officers who will say 'Well, anything is better than Sir Ian Blair'.

I don't necessarily agree with that but I think he is more likely to work with the predominant macho male culture than Sir Ian Blair was and therefore will be more popular with the ground floor but not necessarily for the right reasons.

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