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Home Office-convened group and special panel of the MPA back Sir Hugh Orde, who has been critical of government policy Sir Hugh Orde has been ranked as the best suited candidate to be the next Metropolitan police commissioner by both of the official panels that have interviewed the contenders, the Guardian has learned. The first panel to reach a conclusion was convened by the Home Office and composed of top civil servants and experts. It was chaired by Helen Ghosh , who serves as permanent secretary at the Home Office, and met on Friday 2 September. Last Tuesday, a special panel of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) met and also ranked Orde as best for the job, placing Bernard Hogan-Howe second. On Monday the home secretary, Theresa May, and the London mayor, Boris Johnson, are interviewing the four candidates, and it is expected that Orde’s vocal opposition to the government’s plans for reforming policing will be a significant obstacle to him getting the job. But Orde has been able to convince the two panels that he would be able to work sufficiently well with the Conservatives who run central government and local government in London, raising the prospect that his rejection by May would be seen as party political. By law the selection of the Met commissioner is the responsibility of the home secretary, who merely has to have “regard” for the views of the mayor and the MPA. Orde, who is president of Association of Chief Police Officers, has criticised the government over plans for elected crime commissioners, funding cuts and its response to the August riots, and dismissed the prime minister’s idea that the Met could be run by a foreign police chief as “stupid”. The favourite for the £260,000 a year job is Hogan-Howe, the Met’s acting deputy commissioner, with Stephen House in second place. House, the chief constable of Strathclyde police, was invited to apply by the Home Office after his force won praise for its work on gangs in Glasgow. The other candidate is the acting Met commissioner, Tim Godwin. The government believes that policing needs radical reform. A source with knowledge of government thinking said: “[Orde] is the chief spokesman for the way things have been, and the government wants to shake things up. What anybody else says, such as the MPA, is not binding on the home secretary.” The last two Scotland Yard commissioners have resigned mid-term and one Whitehall source said: “Orde is not the candidate for a quiet life.” Hogan-Howe, a former head of Merseyside police, was seconded into the force by May after Sir Paul Stephenson was forced out as commissioner over errors of judgment in the phone-hacking case. He was viewed on Merseyside as having performed well in tackling gangs and crime, as well as modernising the force. He previously worked for Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary. House has also modernised his force and is a favourite to be the first head of the single Scotland-wide force if he fails to get the Met job. Hogan-Howe and House have another factor in their favour: both their tenures in charge of forces outside of London saw a reduction in crime despite working with tighter budgets. Godwin, like Orde, is seen to be ill at ease with the government’s desire for wholesale changes in policing. David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, told the Guardian that the most important task for the new commissioner was to boost the numbers of minority ethnic officers in the force. Policing by consent was no longer possible unless there was a surge in recruitment of black and Asian officers, he said. “The police in London have got to start looking like the police in New York,” said Lammy. “We have stalled in relation to ethnic minority recruitment. How can you establish consent in this environment?” Minority ethnic officers represent 9.6% of the force, in a city where at least a quarter of the population are from minority backgrounds. Metropolitan police London Police Theresa May Boris Johnson London politics Vikram Dodd guardian.co.uk