Statement on the Publication of the independent report by Dr Shereen Daniels, commissioned by the MPS on the 7 November 2025
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9 hours ago
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Baroness Doreen Lawrence OBE stated:
‘Whilst this report is welcome, it contains nothing that I did not already know. Racism did not start with the murder of my son. It has been part and parcel of the institutions in society and has caused untold damage to many including me and my family and continues to this day. Racism was the reason why Stephen was killed and racism was the reason why the police have failed to find all of his killers. Racism must be acknowledged, accepted and confronted in the Met. In the three decades since my son’s murder there has never been an honest acceptance of racism and how it has affected how our communities are treated. It is hard to make things right unless you accept that things have gone wrong. This Report sets this out in the clearest of terms. What I am now interested in is less of who is being racist and more of how we can fix this. This Report will, I hope, go some way to doing this. Whilst looking at the past helps to make progress for the future, I want the main focus to be on looking forward. The police must stop telling us that change is coming whilst we continue to suffer. That change must take place now.
Imran Khan KC stated:
‘It is little surprise that the Met has been, yet again, found to be racist. It has been found to be racist within and racist without. It treats its Black staff just as badly as it treats the Black community. It has had opportunity after opportunity since Sir William MacPherson’s report into the Stephen lawrence case to sort itself out. It has not done so because Commissioner after Commissioner has refused to acknowledge institutional racism meaning that nothing has been done to eradicate it. This Report lays out in shocking clarity that the time for talking is over, that promises to change can no longer be believed or relied on. And that apologies are hollow and meaningless. It is now time, finally, for Sir Mark Rowley to recognise, acknowledge and accept that his force is riddled with institutional racism. He should step aside or be forced to do so if he does not. He owes it to the Black staff in the Met and to the Black community that it serves. This Report is yet another call for urgent action and the only action that will now work is legal action. Together with the National Black Police Association and Black police officers we will be pursuing legal action to hold the Metropolitan Police and its leadership to account for the harm caused by the systemic racism and discrimination exposed in this Report. But the Met is not alone in being a racist institution. We have heard time and again from officers in all the 48 police forces in the UK who say the same about where they are working. Our legal action will not stop with the Met. That is just the start of our action to make our police forces both accountable to all the communities they serve as well as to all of the staff they employ.’
