Met chief: my critics will not stop me

Country's top police officer remains defiant, but admits one in 10 of his force are against his anti-racist plans
Britain's top police officer today hits back at his critics who brand him as being too politically correct, saying he is braced for "turbulent" times as he battles to make his force less white, less male and more modern.

In an interview with the Guardian, Sir Ian Blair, commissioner of the Metropolitan police, admits to opposition within his own force, estimating that 3,000 of his own officers - one in 10 of the total force of 31,000 - are set against his mission.

Sir Ian was speaking after his force was found to have racially discriminated against three white officers who were disciplined after alleged racist remarks at a training day. The employment tribunal said Sir Ian, barely five months into his post, had hung his own officers out to dry.

Sir Ian said that allegation was personally painful, and hurtful to the force. He feared rank and file officers would believe the claims that he had betrayed their fellow officers, and had even commissioned an instant poll to assess the damage within his force.

But Sir Ian said the Met and British policing had no choice but to embrace diversity, because it delivered better protection to the public: "Issues about understanding diversity, about respect for different communities, respect for different traditions in many occupations is broadly a moral case. For the police service and Metropolitan police in particular, it is a fundamental, brutal business case. You can't police London without understanding the diverse communities we serve.

"How can you police the Chinese community, the Tamil community, emerging east European communities, north African community, how can you do this without understanding and showing respect to the cultures of which this city is made up?

"That's why I'm so unrepentant."

The difficulties that Sir Ian is facing within the Met in carrying some of his officers with him are replicated in forces across Britain. Peter Fahey, chief constable of Cheshire, has told the Guardian that the attempt to make the ranks more diverse is a challenge facing every police force in the country.

Mr Fahey, who was Sir Ian's deputy when he ran the Surrey force, warned that there was a backlash within the service against attempts to increase diversity within the ranks: "All police forces are going through a backlash against the diversity agenda, Ian is being picked upon because he is the head police officer.

"There isn't a great deal of support in the media, in the political world, for what we're trying to do. We've failed to get across the very strong business case for race and diversity, and it's come across as political correctness."

Sir Ian became commissioner in February pledging to modernise the capital's force, and vowing to be more responsive to the public: "I want to ensure that it's the public that shapes the Metropolitan police; that's my absolute determination."

The commissioner admitted that while about one in five of his officers backs him wholeheartedly over the need for change, thousands do not or are undecided: "In any organisation you have 20% who are deeply and firmly committed on your side, 70% in the middle who are watching and 10% who are opposed." Sir Ian revealed that he has turned for help to BBC director general Mark Thompson, with whom he "compares notes" on how to transform their respective institutions: "Mark's term as director-general will be turbulent as he's modernising the organisation."

Sitting in his office on the eighth floor of Scotland Yard, Sir Ian said: "You don't come into here without a pair of copper-bottomed trousers. This is a very tough place."

He said he was ready for the hostile reaction that greeted his starting the top job in British policing: "I'm not particularly surprised by the baptism of fire. I haven't been appointed to have a comfortable life. I've been appointed to modernise a great British institution."

Sir Ian succeeded Sir John Stevens, who took over after the Stephen Lawrence disaster when force morale was rock bottom. The commissioner praised Sir John for turning the force round but said his task was harder than his predecessor's: "Its a tougher operation to make a successful organisation even more successful."

Sir Ian described the remarks at the heart of this week's employment tribunal defeat as Islamophobic: "That language was gratuitous, offensive and deliberate. Officers can expect to be disciplined for using language like that. I want this force to have no place for racism".

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