Think again over refusal to call your force racist, Met boss told

SIR Mark Rowley was today urged to think again about his refusal to use the term “institutional racism” to describe the bigotry in the Met as the author of the most damning report in the force’s history warned that it “rings hollow” to say that he does not like the words.

- Martin Bentham

Louise Casey said she had the highest regard for the Commissioner as a man of “utter decency and integrity” and believed that he and his deputy, Dame Lynne Owens, were the best people to take on the “huge” challenge of overhauling the Met.

But she told the London Assembly’s policing and crime committee that she thought it was wrong not to use the term “institutional” — which Sir Mark said is “politicised” and means “different things to different people” — to describe the racism, misogyny and homophobia in his force as she urged him to think again.