Downing Street initially opposed Stephen Lawrence inquiry

Tony Blair's policy chief thought inquiry into police racism would raise unrealistic hopes for change

Downing Street initially opposed allowing the landmark Stephen Lawrence inquiry to examine police relations with minority ethnic communities, arguing that to do so would only raise unrealistic hopes for real change.

The Macpherson inquiry eventually concluded that the Metropolitan police was institutionally racist, providing a watershed moment in race relations in the UK. But newly released Cabinet papers show Tony Blair wanted to treat the racist murder as an individual incident and to search for lessons to be learned for future investigations of racist killings.