Simon Byrne being linked with Met Commissioner vacancy

Dame Cressida announced on Thursday that she would be stepping down as commissioner after losing the backing of London Mayor Sadiq Khan in the wake of a series of scandals during her tenure leading the UK’s largest police force.

Mr Byrne, who began his police career with the Met in 1982, later spent 20 years with Merseyside Police before a spell with Greater Manchester Police.

In 2011 he returned to London as the Met’s assistant commissioner for Territorial Policing, leading to taking over as chief constable of the Cheshire Constabulary in 2014.

Then, in July 2019, Mr Byrne was appointed to lead the PSNI, succeeding Sir George Hamilton on his retirement. He is one of a number of candidates in a field with no clear favourites.

Others include assistant Met commissioner, currently head of counter-terrorism, Matt Jukes, another former Met assistant commissioner Neil Basu, who currently head’s the force’s counter terrorism branch, and the current head of the British Transport Police, Lucy D’Orsi.

The current deputy commissioner of the Met, Sir Stephen House, is Cressida Dick’s second-in-commander and considered a natural contender for the top job.

Mr Byrne’s has faced a number of calls for his resignation during a relatively short spell as the PSNI chief to date.

In December 2019 a photograph he posted on social media, pictured outside Crossmaglen PSNI station with heavily armed officers, led to an apology and a review of policing in south Armagh.

That in turn led to DUP chairman Lord Morrow adding his voice to a number of his party colleagues who were calling for the chief constable to resign, saying: “I think his position has become untenable”.

Six months later there was further controversy when PSNI officers’s interpretation of the Covid regulations led to fines being issued to Black Lives Matter protesters in Belfast and Londonderry. Mr Byrne apologised after the police ombudsman upheld complaints that the actions were “unfair and discriminatory”.

That was quickly followed by a contentious PSNI decision to adopt an extremely low-key approach at the mass gathering in west Belfast for the funeral of former IRA leader Bobby Storey.

He issued another apology, and rejected suggestions he should stand down, after two probationer constables sparked nationalist outrage in February last year by arresting a UDA victim at a gathering to commemorate the anniversary of a south Belfast atrocity.