No women on shortlist to become next Met chief

FOUR senior police officers – none of them women – have been shortlisted to be the next Metropolitan Police Commissioner.

On the list is the Met's Acting Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, who was deputy to the former chief Sir Ian Blair.

The other three are:

● Sir Hugh Orde, chief constable of Northern Ireland;
● Bernard Hogan-Howe, Merseyside chief constable; and
● Sir Paul Scott-Lee, chief constable of the West Midlands.

Two woman applied for the £253,000-a-year post: Jane Stichbury, one of Her Majesty's Inspectors of Constabulary, and Julie Spence, chief constable of Cambridgeshire.

They were the first women to apply to be Britain's top police officer, along with the first black man – Mike Fuller, chief constable of Kent and a former senior Met commander.

Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick also applied but was under pressure concerning the botched arrest of Tory MP Damian Green over Home Office leaks.