CRESSIDA DICK’S resignation will not solve the “deep-rooted institutional problems” in the Metropolitan Police, justice campaigners warned today as calls for reform grew.

Dame Cressida confirmed on Thursday that she would resign as the force’s commissioner after London Mayor Sadiq Khan declared that he had lost confidence in her leadership and ability to root out sexism, racism, homophobia and bullying in the Met.

The police chief has been notorious since she directed the operation that saw officers run down and execute innocent Brazilian electrician Jean-Charles de Menezes in 2005.

Her resignation has been welcomed, but victims of police abuses stressed that the force needed more than a change of leadership. 

Describing her exit as a “token measure,” Police Spies Out of Lives, a campaign supporting women affected by undercover policing, said: “A simple resignation then continuation of business as usual will not suffice.

“For the Met Police to salvage any kind of public trust, the incoming commissioner must lead a speedy charge away from secrecy, cover-up and closing of ranks to an attitude of openness and transparency.

“Policing by consent is the only way a police force can operate in our society – the Met has a long way to go.”

Dame Cressida was accused of failing to recognise the scale of misogyny in her force, following the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving police officer and the revelation that officers at Charing Cross police station shared “jokes” about abusing women. 

Accusations of misogyny in the Met have also been fuelled by the spycops scandal, which saw dozens of female activists tricked into intimate relationships with undercover officers. 

Alastair Morgan, who has spent decades campaigning for justice for his murdered brother, said he was not confident that a new commissioner would be able to reform the Met, which he said had been “out of control” for years. 

“It is not going to be something the new commissioner can snap their fingers and sort this out, because there are deep-rooted cultural problems in that organisation,” he said. 

A recent report on the case of private detective Daniel Morgan, who was murdered with an axe in a pub car park in south-east London in the 1980s, accused the Met of “institutional corruption” and singled out Dame Cressida for obstructing the investigation. 

She has also come under fire for dismissing allegations of institutional racism within the force.

Responding to her resignation today, Matthew Ryder QC, who represented the family of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence, said Dame Cressida was “wrong and strong” in her leadership.

Human rights campaigner Zita Holbourne, who has supported several families seeking justice for state-related deaths, said it was right for the commissioner to step down. 

“The most horrific racism, misogyny, Islamophobia and more have occurred on her watch,” she told the Morning Star. 

“The question is, what is the person [who] replaces her going to do to root out and eradicate institutional racism and sexism in the Met?”