Romford and Dagenham MPs have supported Dame Cressida Dick’s decision to step down as the Metropolitan Police commissioner.

Her resignation on February 10 came after mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced he had lost “sufficient confidence” in her leadership, following a string of scandals.

These include racist and sexist messages sent by officers at Charing Cross police station and the Met's handling of the Stephen Port and Sarah Everard cases.

Dagenham and Rainham MP Jon Cruddas and Andrew Rosindell, MP for Romford, agreed the commissioner has made the right decision in stepping down.

Mr Cruddas, a Labour MP, told this newspaper, however, that the Met was “underfunded and overstretched”.

He said this lack of resourcing had “in part, led to a string of poorly handled cases”, resulting in a loss of faith.

“Following the Sarah Everard case, the emerging toxic culture within the Met, and the appalling mishandling of the Stephen Port case – which I am pressing for a public inquiry into – I think [her resignation] was the right decision," he said.

“However, the bottom line is that the majority of officers are doing the best they can under incredibly difficult conditions.”

The MP said officers deserved “strong leadership to turn the force around”, with a focus on addressing the “toxic internal culture at all levels”.

Mr Rosindell, a Conservative MP, said Dame Cressida had “constantly failed to effectively carry out the job”.

He claimed several constituents had raised concerns about the Met’s partiality, alleging a differing police response to anti-lockdown demonstration” compared with Black Lives Matter protests.

The MP said politics should be kept out of policing and suggested the police should spend more time on knife crime and gang violence.