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The Metropolitan police are braced for an undercover documentary showing officers and staff allegedly being supportive of the far-right activist Tommy Robinson, making anti-Muslim comments and using excessive force against suspects in custody.
The allegations, which centre on Charing Cross police station in central London, are contained in a BBC Panorama documentary airing on Wednesday evening.
The allegations have plunged the Met into crisis mode, with commissioner Sir Mark Rowley trying to contain the damage as well as showing he can cut out toxic cultures within Britain’s largest force.
Programme makers are yet to make public full details of what undercover filming reveal but the broad allegations were sent by them to police chiefs a fortnight ago.
That has led to the suspension of nine serving officers and the police watchdog launching a major investigation, with one officer under criminal investigation.
The Guardian understands the programme claims to have material in which an officer makes comments supportive of Robinson. Robinson is a former leader of the English Defence League and the monitoring group Hope Not Hate assesses him to be the “best-known far-right extremist in Britain”.
Allegations also expected to be broadcast include claims of excessive force against suspects being held at the police station, including one youngster, as well as anti-Muslim comments and anti-female comments.
An undercover BBC reporter working as a member of civilian staff recorded the material that led to the allegations.
The looming revelations were discussed on a conference call of police chiefs across England and Wales on Tuesday and Rowley has cancelled some scheduled engagements on Thursday to deal with the expected fallout.
Charing Cross police station is the source of a scandal that contributed to the ousting of then commissioner Cressida Dick in 2022.
An Independent Office for Police Conduct report in 2022 revealed graphic details of officers sharing messages about hitting and raping women, the deaths of black babies and the Holocaust. At the time the officers were based mainly at Charing Cross, with the offending behaviour of 19 individuals taking place from 2016 to 2018.
Rowley, who came to office vowing to clean up the Met, wants to show the his force will be ruthless in dealing with allegations of wrongdoing which occurred on and off duty between August 2024 and January this year.
The IOPC said the latest allegations about Charing Cross had led to 11 individuals being under investigation for potential gross misconduct.
One of those is a police constable who is under criminal investigation on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.
The watchdog said it hadobtained CCTV from the custody area and was looking for detainees subjected to alleged wrongdoing, and in one case, an officer alleged to have been abused.
Amanda Rowe, the IOPC’s director, said: “As a result of our appeal within the Met, we have already had a number of police staff who previously worked at Charing Cross station contact us with information and we are following up each report.”
The Met has disbanded the custody team at Charing Cross, moving them elsewhere in the force and said it had reformed the leadership covering the police station. It said the allegations, if true, amounted to “criminality and misconduct” and would be “disgraceful”.
The position of Rowley, commissioner since 2022 and with two years of his term left to serve, is not thought to be in danger from the revelations. The key political support he depends on is London mayor Sadiq Khan, who is in effect the capital’s police and crime commissioner.
The mayor’s aides said Khan believed that Rowley had acted robustly in dealing with the allegations.
Neither the Met nor the IOPC has the evidence containing the allegations and both hope the BBC will provide them with it after the programme is broadcast.
