Stephen Lawrence case: Cameron calls for investigation after Guardian reveals ‘smear’ campaign –

The Lawrence family solicitor Imran Khan has given his reaction to allegations that the police attempted to smear the family of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence.

Khan, who represents Stephen's mother Doreen, said:

It ought to be a surprise to me that the Met Police were spying on the Lawrence family but in fact its not as surprising as I thought it might be.

Once I get these answers, we need to take the matter further forward if those answers are not satisfactory.

ITV have an interview with the solicitor. 

Jenny Jones, deputy chair of the police and crime committee on the London Assembly, has been commenting on the Guardian's revelations that police were allegedly asked to smear the Lawrence family.

She called the revelations the "last straw" in the scandal. 

She said: 

The fact that senior police officers apparently withheld information from the Macpherson Inquiry is the last straw in this scandal. 

We have a unit that steals the identities of dead babies, withholds information from a judicial inquiry and uses sex as a tool to gain information from innocent women. 

It's just not credible to let the police investigate their own mistakes in this case. 

They have proved unwilling to be scrutinised and if we are to restore trust in the police there must be a public inquiry into the whole issue of undercover police spies. 

I should like to hear the Mayor of London, who is after all responsible for the Met, calling for a judge-led inquiry.

There is very little chance that those interested in the Guardian's undercover policing reporting will not be following Rob Evans and Paul Lewis, but for the minority who may not be they are on @PaulLewis and @robevansgdn

Here is the full Met Police statement to new Stephen Lawrence allegations:

The MPS recognises the seriousness of the allegations of inappropriate behaviour and practices involving past undercover deployments. 

The claims in relation to Stephen Lawrence's family will bring particular upset to them and we share their concerns.

A thorough review and investigation into these matters - Operation Herne - is being overseen by Derbyshire Chief Constable Mick Creedon. 

Operation Herne is a live investigation, four strands of which are being supervised by the Independent Police Complaints Commission, and it would be inappropriate to pre-judge its findings.

The MPS must balance the genuine public interest in these matters with its duty to protect officers and former officers who have been deployed undercover, often in difficult and dangerous circumstances. We are therefore not prepared to confirm nor deny the identity of individuals alleged in the media to have been working undercover, nor confirm nor deny the deployment of individuals on specific operations. 

It is also important to recognise that any actions by officers working on or with the Special Demonstration Squad need to be understood by Operation Herne in terms of the leadership, supervision, support, training, legal framework, tasking and reporting mechanisms that were in place at the time.

At some point it will fall upon this generation of police leaders to account for the activities of our predecessors, but for the moment we must focus on getting to the truth.

Theresa May is to answer an urgent question on the Lawrence family Met spying revelations in the Commons.

Simon Jenkins has commented on the Lawrence revelations on Comment is Free.

He writes:

The Met is out of control. The revelation that it sought to smear the Lawrence family in the hunt for Stephen Lawrence's killers – perhaps to stifle racist aspersions on its detectives – beggars belief. Less surprising is that the operation was unknown to the then police chief, Sir Paul Condon, to the home secretary and to the MacPherson inquiry. It is merely further evidence of the Met's gift for malpractice and skulduggery.

All police forces have two cultures. One is of genuine service to the local community, and enjoys public support. The other is a murkier culture of specialised units, secret operations and semi-private militias. It inhabits a world of guns, surveillance, infiltration and espionage. Its officers are loyal to each other, but that is all. Their ends justify their multifarious means. In the Lawrence case, it appears the end was to protect the reputation of the police from justified criticism.

London must have a police force, and it must sometimes do edgy things. But it must be under visible democratic control. The so-called special demonstration squad, charged, among other things, with smearing the Stephen Lawrence family, was accountable only to itself and its immediate superiors.

The Met now supposedly has an elected mayor in charge. Boris Johnson has no clue what it is doing. Like all politicians he is terrified of it, caving in to demands for more money and staff at every turn. He can fire the Met's chief, as he once did, but if the chief has no clue either, who is responsible?

The Met should be broken into smaller units, each subject to borough scrutiny. In the Stephen Lawrence case, the one accountability is to an outraged whistleblower. Praise be for whistleblowers.

Duwayne Brooks, who Peter Francis also says was snooped on has given a phlegmatic response on twitter. 

Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, has also called the allegations “shocking and appalling”.

She said:

These are shocking and appalling allegations and we need to know the full truth of what happened. We have long known that the Metropolitan Police investigation into Stephen Lawrence's murder in 1993 failed badly and reflected racism within elements of the police at the time.

There have also been concerns that corruption within the investigation was never fully pursued. These are very serious new claims about the conduct of the police at the time, and it is vital we get to the truth about what happened.

The Metropolitan Police team who pursued the most recent investigation and prosecution and secured some justice for Stephen Lawrence's family, have done very good and important work. But these allegations - even though they relate to twenty years ago - are shocking and will be very upsetting for Stephen Lawrence's family and friends.

An investigation is currently underway into the actions of undercover police officers within the Met. However, given the significance of the Lawrence case, and the unresolved concerns about corruption too, the Home Secretary should seek a faster investigation into these specific allegations.

The police who had secured the prosecution of two men for the murder of Stephen Lawrence earlier this year had done important work, but the new revelations could not be ignored, she said.

Victims need to be able to have full confidence in the vital work the police do each day to keep them safe and get them justice. That is why any suggestion that undercover policing could have undermined victims or justice should be taken so seriously and the truth pursued now.

These allegations – even though they relate to 20 years ago – are shocking and will be very upsetting for Stephen Lawrence’s family and friends. Victims need to be able to have full confidence in the vital work the police do each day to keep them safe and get them justice.

Jack Straw, set up an inquiry into the police’s handling of the murder of Stephen Lawrence, told the BB4 Radio 4's Today Programme that he was calling for an immediate enquiry into the new revelations by the IPPC. 

He said

I am absolutely appalled by these revelations. They go to the heart of the issue of the integrity and the ethics of the police service, or the lack of both, in part of the Metropolitan Police at the time of Stephen Lawrence's murder in 1993 and for some years after that. 

When I saw the Dispatches programme, or part of it, at the end of last week I said to the producer that I would be considering referring these allegations to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. 

Having thought about it further, and also noted that there has been no explicit denial from the Metropolitan Police, I am now going to refer this to the Independent Police Complaints Commission. 

These are really serious allegations. The IPCC have the resources to get to the bottom of what happened here and they have also got the powers to do so. 

I think they are the appropriate body to make this investigation.

Straw said the allegations were "so serious and of a different order" to others investigations about undercover officers that they should be the subject of a "full-scale" IPCC probe. 

We need to know why not a word of any of this was disclosed in any form, even confidentially, either to me as home secretary or to the Macpherson Inquiry. 

Thing had changed and there was only a "tiny" prospect of something similar happening today, he added.

But are they zero? No. And do we have to learn the lessons of the past? yes we do. 

David Cameron is calling on Scotland Yard to launch an immediate investigation into the Guardian’s revelations that a former undercover police officer participated in an operation to spy on and attempt to “smear” the family of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence.

The prime minister is "deeply concerned" by claims made by Peter Francis that he was told to find "dirt" that could be used against members of the Lawrence family, the friend who witnessed his fatal stabbing and campaigners angry at the failure to bring his killers to justice, shortly after the 18-year-old was killed in a racist attack in April 1993.

A No 10 spokesman said: "The prime minister is deeply concerned by reports that the police wanted to smear Stephen Lawrence's family and would like the Metropolitan police to investigate immediately."

The claims surfaced as a result of a joint investigation into undercover policing by the Guardian and Channel 4's Dispatches programme, to be broadcast tonight.

We’ll have live coverage of all the fallout from and reaction to the revelations here throughout the day.