London police is institutionally racist and misogynist: Report

London's Metropolitan Police is institutionally racist and misogynistic, and unable to police itself, an independent review said on Tuesday.

The new report is heaping pressure on the Met's new chief to reform Britain's biggest police force.

The findings come more than two decades after a 1999 inquiry into the murder of Black teenager Stephen Lawrence identified institutional racism within the force.

The review was commissioned by the then-head of the Met, Cressida Dick, in 2021 after a serving officer was sentenced to life in prison for the rape and murder of a young woman, Sarah Everard, in a case that shocked the country and put a spotlight on the force's broader work culture.

"This report is rigorous, stark and unsparing. Its findings are tough and for many will be difficult to take. But it should leave no one in any doubt about the scale of the challenge," Louise Casey, who led the review, said in its foreword.

The review said the biggest barrier to fixing the force was the Met's culture of defensiveness and denial about the scale of its problems.

Met Commissioner Mark Rowley, Britain's most senior police officer, told reporters: "We've let Londoners down and we've let our own frontline down and this report paints that vividly ... I'm deeply sorry."

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said trust in the police had been "hugely damaged".

"What we need to do is now make sure that that won't be repeated, that we can regain people's trust and I know that the police commissioner is committed to doing that," he told BBC television.

002