Boris Johnson cautious on call for ethnic bias on police posts

London mayor Boris Johnson has reacted cautiously to a call by the head of the Metropolitan Police for the force to be allowed to recruit one ethnic minority officer for every white officer they take on - a move similar to one instituted previously in Northern Ireland.

Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe has called for a change in the law to allow positive discrimination over a five-year period amid accusations that the predominantly white force is still “institutionally racist”.

The proposal is based on the model used in Northern Ireland, where a temporary change in the law allowed the PSNI to take on one Catholic for every Protestant it recruited, when it was newly formed.

Mr Johnson said while he wanted to see a force that “looks like London”, any move towards positive discrimination would have to be examined very at carefully.

"At the moment I'm reflecting on it. I think it is something we need to consider. It's not obviously part of our traditions here in England. There are all sorts of ramifications that you have got to think through," he told LBC radio.

“This would be a big change. I think we’ll need to debate it, we’ll have to have a proper conversation with London. I imagine we’ll have a consultation before we do such a thing. I don’t think this is something that I’d just want to enter into at the drop of a hat.

“The potential of the idea is that it does seem to have worked in Northern Ireland. The downside is ... that whenever you have a positive discrimination move you are inevitably going to set up certain problems. You just need to reflect.”

He warned that it could undermine the position of ethnic minority officers if it was thought they were appointed because of their ethnicity rather than on merit. “You would be undermining his or her own confidence in his or her own success and achievement,” he said.

Press Association