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Pressure grows on top Scotland Yard officer Ian Blair

The Met's most senior Asian officer to make allegations public as he takes force to tribunal Commissioner Ian Blair’s leadership of Scotland Yard looked increasingly fragile on Saturday as Britain's most senior Asian police officer announced that he was launching a legal claim against the London Metropolitan Police (known as the Met) over allegations of racial discrimination.

Following legal advice, assistant commissioner Tarique Ghaffur has taken the decision to launch formal proceedings in a case that he says raises fresh questions about corruption. He also claims that the commissioner “misled” the public over his role in the cash-for-honors investigation.

The Yard had believed that Ghaffur’s allegations could be kept out of court, but his decision to file a claim could plunge the Met into its worst race row since the 1998 Macpherson inquiry into the investigation of the murder of Stephen Lawrence branded the force “institutionally racist.”

Ghaffur’s lawyer, Shahrokh Mireskandari, said: “The Ghaffur case will expose the true position in relation to the discrimination within Scotland Yard at the highest level; it will reveal the reality of racism in the Met. It is a massive claim that could destroy the commissioner and his golden circle.”

In a separate move, Ghaffur will submit a formal witness statement to an inquiry headed by Ronnie Flanagan, the former chief inspector of constabulary, who is investigating how Blair’s skiing companion Andy Miller secured a series of lucrative police contracts.

Ghaffur, the third most senior officer in the Met, will forward claims to Flanagan concerning Blair’s relationship with another businessman who won a consultancy contract to advise the Met on security at the 2012 London Olympics.

The dossier of evidence against Scotland Yard makes the case that, under Blair, the level of racial discrimination in Scotland Yard has worsened since the Macpherson inquiry. Senior and black Asian officers are described in the claim as facing a “hostile” and “poisonous” atmosphere. Other concerns relate to “misleading statements and false statements” issued by the Met over race.

Ghaffur, 53, who is also Britain’s most senior Muslim officer, said he decided to take the force to an employment tribunal over alleged racism after Lord Brenning, Robin Allen and Mireskandari analysed Ghaffur’s dossier of e-mails, internal documents, contemporaneous notes and concluded that he had an “exceptionally powerful” case on the grounds of “racial discrimination.”

The claim will be formally lodged at the employment tribunal within the next 10 days and will be marked by a press conference in which the full set of allegations against Blair will be laid out.

In the documents, Ghaffur, who has been awarded the Queen’s Police Medal and appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire, claims that London’s bid to host the 2012 Olympics contained promises that its security would be headed by a black or Asian officer and that this pledge was reneged on by Blair.

Len Duvall, the chairman of the Metropolitan Police Authority and its chief executive, Catherine Crawford, also feature prominently in the complaint. Both strenuously deny racism.
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