Ghaffur will give evidence in private at Met racism inquiry

FORMER race row police chief Tarique Ghaffur will be the first witness at an inquiry into discrimination within the Metropolitan Police which opens tomorrow.

Mr Ghaffur, a former assistant commissioner who received a £300,000 pay-off after accusing Sir Ian Blair of race discrimination, will give evidence in private.

The inquiry was ordered by Mayor Boris Johnson last year after the senior management of the Yard became embroiled in a series of disputes over race.

The review - to be chaired by Metropolitan Police Authority member Cindy Butts - comes 10 years after the force was accused of institutional racism in the Macpherson report into the Stephen Lawrence murder case.

It also coincides with the Runnymede Trust review which criticises the Met for failing to address many of the issues raised in the Lawrence report.

Mr Ghaffur was Britain's most senior Asian police officer when he launched a high-profile discrimination claim against the Met, singling out former Commissioner Sir Ian and accusing him of racism. He settled his claim in November last year and withdrew his allegations against Sir Ian, who was forced to resign a month earlier.

The Metropolitan Police Authority, which is organising the race inquiry, said he had asked to give his evidence in private. Sir Ian is also expected to give evidence behind closed doors at another session of the hearing.

He faced three discrimination claims from his senior officers in his last months in office but in a recent interview strongly denied that he was personally racist.

The Race and Faith Inquiry, which is expected to cost more than £100,000, will be headed by a panel including lawyer Anthony Julius, former local government officer Margaret Blankson and Bob Purkiss, a former commissioner of the Commission for Racial Equality.

Mr Ghaffur is one of a number of senior ethnic minority officers who are expected to give evidence.

Officials from the Met's Black Police Association are expected to be particularly critical of the force claiming it has failed to promote ethnic minority officers to senior positions.

The Runnymede Trust review by Dr Richard Stone, one of the three men who chaired the Lawrence inquiry, said the Met had achieved little in addressing race issues and warned that the failure to do so could "explode in their faces".