The new Met Commissioner will visit Wandsworth and Lambeth today as he takes up his new role.

Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe, the 26th person to hold the position, will be meeting officers and staff across London, beginning in Romford and ending in Wandsworth.

From a 5.30am start in east London, he is working his way west through London, predominantly along the Thames on one of the police boats; stopping at Barking & Dagenham, Woolwich, Greenwich, Lewisham, Southwark, Westminster, Lambeth, Kensington & Chelsea, Hammersmith & Fulham and Wandsworth, from where he will make his way to New Scotland Yard.

During the day he is meeting uniformed officers, detectives, police staff, officers from the Marine Support Unit, Diplomatic Protection Group, Mounted Branch, and the Territorial Support Group.

He told staff: "I want to make the Met the best police service in the world.

"It is my intention to build on public trust in the Met and lead a service that criminals will fear, and staff will be proud to work for.

"As Commissioner, I have three simple aims: I want us to cut crime, cut costs, and continue to develop the culture of the organisation, and to do all that based on simple but important values of humility, transparency and integrity.

"We will do that through what I call 'total policing'."