'What are they doing?!' Ex-armed officer 'raging with fury' after Sadiq Khan's bodyguards 'misplace' bag full of guns

The holdall was discovered at around 9.30pm on Tuesday - the same night feral youths were running riot in Clapham - and contained an MP5 carbine, a Glock pistol, a Taser and ammunition.

A pregnant woman first spotted the bag and kicked it to investigate before alerting her partner, Jordan Griffiths, who took it inside.

The Metropolitan Police has confirmed five officers have been removed from frontline duty so far.

"Well, personally, someone with nine members of my family has given their lives careers to that job," Mr Hurley fumed. "I'm raging with fury. And let me tell you why."

Mr Hurley explained how he had carried both types of weapons discovered in the bag for operational purposes on specialist detective squads and while advising the police in Iraq.

He had also spent time as a British soldier in the Army. "So I know a lot about guns," he added.

Mr Hurley said: "The one thing you absolutely do not do is surrender custody of your personal issue weapons to anyone.

"What you're looking at there is the personal issue equipment for one officer from the Royalty and Diplomatic protection group that Taser, that Glock and that MP5 were a personal issue piece of kit."

He continued: "It's quite awkward for someone if they want to slip early or slip away early from work - to have to go all the way back to their armory in central London and hand their weapons in.

"Far easier if their mate, who comes to retrieve them in a car with three or four other officers on board, is asked, 'oh, can you put my guns in for me, Mike? I'll just jump on the train and go home.'"

He further suggested the authorities launch an investigation into the matter.

"This is a systemic little cover-up of poor timesaving procedures going on within that Royalty and Diplomatic Protection Group, who've always been notorious for this kind of stuff within the service.

"It's quite clear that the senior police leadership of the Metropolitan Police has failed to grasp one of the most fundamental elements of the Casey report...

"There is a cultural problem. This is really serious, and it tells us that someone needs to take a good look at the commander in charge of that element of the police, and by that I mean the National Police Chiefs Council and assistant chief constable.

"Look at them. What are they doing about their job? Look at the chief superintendent.

"What are they doing about this? What are the superintendent doing? Don't just bring it down the line to the constables.

"A fish rots from the head. And that department has always needed sorting out. And the re-establishment of the culture of who recruits who's on it and why they do it."

Earlier this week, a Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "At around 9.40pm, a member of the public called police after finding a bag containing Met-issued firearms and a Taser on a street in South London.

"Within seven minutes of the call, officers arrived at the scene and safely recovered the items.

"We are urgently reviewing the circumstances of this incident and recognise the concern it may cause.

"At this stage, it is believed the bag was misplaced by on-duty officers a short time before the member of the public located it."

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