Sir Mark Rowley says his force "dropped the ball" after it investigated a reporter looking into claims about Jason Arday.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley has admitted his force "dropped the ball" when it spent four months investigating a journalist examining claims about a University of Cambridge professor embroiled in a plagiarism row. Journalist Jack Grove said he was told by the Met it had looked into a complaint made by Jason Arday, which it closed, and that Grove should not contact Arday again. When asked by broadcaster LBC if he should apologise to Grove, Sir Mark agreed and said the complaint should have been "screened out earlier on as not requiring investigation". Arday, who resigned from Cambridge on Wednesday, has previously denied plagiarism but admitted some errors. Serious questions for Cambridge after professor at centre of plagiarism row resigns The university opened an investigation on Tuesday into the 41-year-old, who became Cambridge's youngest black professor in 2023, following several stories making claims about the academic. Times Higher Education (THE) reporter Grove said in 2025 he had been investigating allegations that Arday had plagiarised parts of his PhD and had emailed him offering right of reply. Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Grove said: "In early February I received a call from a Met police officer saying that a complaint had been raised against me by someone and Professor Arday was very distressed and I shouldn't contact him again.