appear in front of it and say there is a sense this inquiry is rewarding bad behaviour.

"Last year there was an extraordinary concept that people of seniority should attempt to take the organisation to tribunal.

"Tribunals are for people far below that and it was a grave misfortune," Sir Ian said.

He rejected claims that he had favoured a "golden circle" of officers but admitted that it may be difficult for minority staff to break into informal groups as "people tend still to socialise with people who look like and behave like and sound like them".

Sir Ian also said the Met Black Police Association's (BPA) call for a boycott of ethnic minority recruitment was "absurd".

"I took extreme umbrage at the Met BPA describing what happened in the summer as ethnicand religious cleansing."

Following the race claims last year, the Met BPA broke off links with Scotland Yard bosses in October, only re-establishing contact last month.

The race inquiry will also hear from the chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), Trevor Phillips, who argued that the term "systematic bias" ought to have been used instead of 'institutionally racist' to describe the Met, will also give evidence to the inquiry.

A recent EHRC report found that while some progress had been made, young black and Asian men were still far more likely to be stopped and searched than their white counterparts.

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