Video ‘will prove police who pulled Labour MP over were not racist’

Body-worn camera footage showing the moment Dawn Butler, the Labour MP, was stopped as she drove through London should be released to prove officers have nothing to apologise for, the Met Police Federation chairman said.

Ms Butler accused Scotland Yard of being “institutionally racist” after she and a friend were pulled over in Hackney on Sunday afternoon.

The Met said the stop was the result of an officer inputting the wrong registration plate details into a computer, which suggested the car was registered in Yorkshire rather than London.

The MP, a former shadow equalities secretary, said the fact the check took place at all showed black people were unable to drive around freely without being stopped.

Ken Marsh, who represents rank and file London officers, said it was ludicrous to suggest it was an example of institutional racism and called for Scotland Yard to release the footage.

He said: “These officers have got nothing to apologise for. They were simply doing their jobs, they were polite and acted professionally throughout. The public have only got to see what this MP has chosen to make public. If the public was to see the full exchange they would see that but because of legal restrictions the body-worn footage cannot be released.

“We are getting to the point where my colleagues will simply stop doing their job. The last time police officers were told to stop doing their job was around stop and search and knife crime went up by 71 per cent.”

Ms Butler claimed the fact they were stopped suggested the police used racial profiling to target black motorists.

She said: “The police are policing not on intelligence or reasonable suspicions, they are using bias and they are stereotyping and they are making assumptions.”

A Met statement said: “Upon stopping the vehicle and speaking with the driver, it quickly became apparent that the registration had been entered incorrectly... Once the mistake was realised the officer sought to explain this to the occupants, they were then allowed on their way.”