'Spycops' Inquiry: police lies and state abuse

Even for seasoned activists and lawyers, the revelations from the last week of the Undercover Policing Inquiry (UCPI) have been both shocking and deeply unsettling. The extent of the deliberate and calculated harm caused by Undercover Officers (UCOs) deployed to spy on campaigners—primarily those involved in left-wing political parties and progressive campaigns—has been laid bare like never before. Particularly distressing is the systematic targeting of female activists by UCOs, involving unprotected sex, coercive control, and sudden abandonment of both partners and children, all carried out with impunity.

On Tuesday, 26 November 2024, the UCPI heard harrowing testimony from Belinda Harvey, who described being coerced and manipulated by Bob Lambert a UCO. Despite not being an activist, Belinda Harvey was targeted by Lambert, who attempted to draw her into activism. The Inquiry also heard from ‘Jacqui ‘another woman deceived by Lambert, with whom he had a relationship and a son. Lambert abandoned both mother and child when their son was just a few years old. It has since emerged that Lambert, while deployed as a UCO in the animal rights movement, had multiple relationships with other women as well.

Let us be very clear: without the relentless campaigning of the women (many involved with the campaigning group Spies Out of Lives) subjected to systemic abuse by UCOs and the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS), this Inquiry would not exist. These women fought for accountability despite immense obstacles, including denials from senior levels of the MPS and the disappearance of the UCOs who had deceived them. Thanks to their dogged determination, the full scale of these abuses is finally coming to light.

This week also brought allegations that Bob Lambert, while undercover, participated in an arson attack on Debenhams stores. Other activists faced prison sentences for the same attack, while Lambert walked away with a commendation. Lambert is scheduled to give evidence in the week beginning Monday, 2 December 2024. His later leadership of the Special Demonstration Squad in the 1990s raises further serious questions, particularly in light of allegations that the Stephen Lawrence Family Campaign was monitored—and possibly infiltrated—by UCOs under his watch.

The Inquiry must now grapple with a series of pressing questions. In the 1970s, UCO Richard Clarke used sex as a tactic to infiltrate activist groups and ingratiate himself with targets. Our client, “Mary,” was one of the first victims of this predatory approach. This tactic appears to have been institutionalised, persisting into the 1980s and beyond.

The systemic nature of these abuses demands urgent investigation by the Chair and the Inquiry. Certainly the likes of Clarke and Lambert need to be called to account, but other questions require urgent consideration. How many managers were aware of this tactic? Did they sanction it? Did they knowingly turn a blind eye? What did the Commissioner of Police know—was this concealed from them, did they know,  and if so will they fall back on the evasive “neither confirm nor deny” stance? Moreover, what did senior civil servants and crucially what did government ministers know, and to what extent were they complicit?

These questions strike at the heart of the Inquiry’s purpose. They demand not only answers but a full reckoning with the institutional failures that allowed such abuses to proliferate unchecked.