The Home Office Must Not Shut Down the Spycops Inquiry
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/imran-khan. "The Home Office must not be allowed to bury the spycops inquiry | Imran Khan | The Guardian." August 28, 2026. www.theguardian.com
The Gist
The author argues that the UK government should not shut down the long-running inquiry into undercover police spying on activists and grieving families, because the delays and costs blamed for the potential closure were actually caused by police obstruction, not the inquiry's design. He argues that since the inquiry keeps revealing serious misconduct, and victims like Doreen Lawrence have waited over 30 years for answers, it would be unjust to end it now just because the state has "heard enough about itself."
Conclusion
The government should not curtail or close the undercover policing (spycops) public inquiry, despite its cost and duration.
Premises
- Victims like Doreen Lawrence and other surveilled activists have waited decades for truth and justice, and closing the inquiry would deny them that after a 33-year wait
- The inquiry's slowness and £137m cost were caused primarily by the Met's own obstruction—anonymity applications, litigation over cover names, and officers' unwillingness to disclose their conduct—not by any flaw in the inquiry itself
- It is inappropriate for the Home Office, the same department that funded and oversaw the SDS, to now cite the inquiry's cost and delay (which the Met caused) as grounds for ending it
- The inquiry continues to produce significant new revelations about police misconduct, including fabricated evidence, exploitative sexual relationships with surveillance targets, and misuse of public funds to protect officers
- The scale and severity of the misconduct uncovered—racially motivated targeting of Black campaigners, blacklisting of over 3,000 trade unionists, and courts being misled by officers—demonstrates the inquiry's ongoing value and the likelihood that more misconduct remains undiscovered
Assumptions
- Public inquiries into state wrongdoing should be judged by their capacity to deliver truth and accountability, not primarily by cost or duration
- The Met's obstruction should be attributed to the institution/Home Office rather than being seen as a neutral factor justifying closure
- Ongoing revelations indicate there is more significant truth yet to be uncovered, rather than diminishing returns
- Victims' right to a full accounting outweighs the state's interest in limiting further institutional embarrassment or expense
- The consultation process is a genuine mechanism through which public pressure can alter the outcome