Met terror chief who started out in South Yorkshire accused of 'woke stunt' for wearing hot flush menopause vest
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Matt Jukes was "condemned" by senior retired officers for wearing a hot flush vest during a meeting, one of whom argued he was undermining public attitudes to the police's ability to fight crime and public disorder.
The assistant commissioner wore the 'Menovest' garment in a meeting to mark Menopause Awareness Month. He said he found the vest with heated pads 'at times uncomfortable' and 'at times distracting'.
But it had given him 'heightened awareness' of the experiences of menopausal women and vowed to 'redouble my focus to normalise our conversations about the menopause at work'. It comes amid criticism of police chiefs across the country for engaging in 'woke' gestures while crimes go unsolved. But Diane Danzebrink, founder of Menopause Support, welcomed the exercise, saying: 'It's important for men to be educated about menopause'
Mr Jukes started out as a PC with South Yorkshire Police in 1995, after graduating from Oxford University with a degree in mathematics, and quickly worked his way up the ranks. Between 1997 and 2006, he worked in a number of roles, principally as a detective. He served as district commander in Rotherham from 2006-2010 and was praised for helping South Yorkshire Police become ‘more proactive’ in dealing with the Rotherham child sexual abuse scandal. He joined South Wales Police as assistant chief constable in 2010 and was promoted to chief constable in January 2018, before joining the Metropolitan Police in 2020.