Met Police still providing ‘vast majority’ of armed services despite officers handing in guns

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London’s Metropolitan Police has insisted its officers are still providing the “vast majority” of armed response services in the UK capital, despite admitting it had been forced to ask other forces and the army for support after a crisis of confidence in the group.

Britain’s biggest police force made the statement on Monday following reports suggesting hundreds of its roughly 2,500 firearms officers had handed in their permits to carry weapons since Wednesday last week.

They did so in response to the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision to charge a Met armed response officer with murder over the fatal shooting on September 5 last year of Chris Kaba, an unarmed black musician, in south London.

The prosecution of the officer — identified only as NX121 — led to controversy over the weekend, with home secretary Suella Braverman announcing a review of armed policing.

She wrote on the social media platform X on Sunday that armed officers should not fear “ending up in the dock” for carrying out their duties.

“Officers risking their lives to keep us safe have my full backing and I will do everything in my power to support them,” added Braverman.

Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley welcomed the review and said the way police officers were held to account was “long overdue for reform to address a number of imbalances”.

Armed response officers from neighbouring forces, including Kent, were brought into London over the weekend to fill gaps left by Met officers who had handed in their permits.

The Met has also put in place arrangements with the army to offer support in case of significant emergencies such as a terror attack.

“We are aware of media reporting suggesting that all firearms officers have stepped back from armed duties,” the force said in a statement. “This is not correct. Met officers still make up the vast majority of armed resources deployed across London.”

Most UK police officers are not routinely armed, but the Met has an unusually high number of officers authorised to carry firearms. While some serve in response units that are deployed to firearms incidents, others provide armed protection to parliament, embassies, airports and other strategic sites.

The Met said on Monday that “many” of its armed officers were worried about how the decision to prosecute NX121 affected them.

“They are concerned that it signals a shift in the way the decisions they take in the most challenging circumstances will be judged,” the force said. “A number of officers have taken the decision to step back from armed duties while they consider their position.”

The Met was in “ongoing discussions” with those officers to support them and “fully understand” the “genuinely held concerns” that they had, it added.

The force said it retained “significant firearms capacity” but that its officers had been supported since Saturday evening by a “limited number of armed officers from other UK forces”.

“The Ministry of Defence has agreed to a request to provide the Met with counter-terrorism support should it be needed,” the force said, adding that use of the armed forces would be a “contingency option” to be used only in “specific circumstances and where an appropriate policing response was not available”.

“Armed forces personnel will not be used in a routine policing capacity,” the Met said.

The Metropolitan Police Federation, which represents the force’s rank-and-file officers, on Monday welcomed Braverman’s review.

“Colleagues should not fear for their liberty and livelihoods for simply doing the job the public expect of us,” the federation said. “We look forward to playing a full part of any review.”