by Martin Evans, Telegraph
Rick Prior dismissed and banned from ever standing for election again
The head of the Metropolitan Police Federation has been sacked after speaking to The Telegraph.
Rick Prior, who represented 30,000 officers in the capital, was suspended last year after warning that members were concerned about being labelled racist.
He challenged his suspension in the courts but after giving an interview to The Telegraph to raise awareness and crowdfund for his case, he has now been formally dismissed and banned from ever standing for election again.
The officer, who has more than 30 years of service with the Metropolitan Police, including working in royalty protection, claimed he would have received fairer treatment from the regime in North Korea.
The case began last October when Mr Prior, who was democratically elected to represent rank and file officers in London, gave a television interview warning that his members were becoming increasingly nervous about challenging people from ethnic minority communities.
In the interview, with GB News, Mr Prior said: “There’s a striking crisis of confidence at the moment within policing in general and certainly within the Metropolitan Police, whereby officers are withdrawing from any kind of proactive policing for fear of falling foul of the IOPC [Independent Office of Police Conduct], or a vexatious or malicious complaint.”