A FORMER Met Police officer has been arrested after allegedly posting racist content on WhatsApp.
Rob Lewis, now working as a Home Office official, is being held on suspicion of offences under the Communications Act and misconduct in a public office.
It comes after a BBC Newsnight investigation was shown racist messages about flooding in Pakistan as well as Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, which had been shared in a chat group.
The Home Office branded the messages as “vile and deplorable” and has suspended him.
It said it had “a zero-tolerance approach to anyone displaying racist or discriminatory behaviour”.
Lewis is believed to have created the group chat, which also included other former Met Police officers.
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The BBC current affairs programme has seen dozens of the offending messages which a member of the group passed on to the Newsnight team.
Many of the messages are said to be too offensive to show and some reportedly contain the very strongest racial slurs.
The corporation says the posts reference a number of topics, including the government’s Rwanda policy and the recent flooding in Pakistan which left nearly 1,700 people dead.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are also said to feature in some messages which include several memes, alongside racist language.
A number of members of the WhatsApp group are said to have previously worked for the Diplomatic Protection Group (DPG), a specialist operations branch of the Met that guards the Houses of Parliament and protects ministers.
Newsnight says serving police officers were part of the group until recently, but many left following the murder of Sarah Everard, last year.
Wayne Couzens, who was a member of the same specialist branch, murdered Ms Everard.
The unit has now been renamed as the Parliamentary and Diplomatic Protection (PaDP).
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Sir Mark Rowley became the Met Police’s new commissioner in September and he has vowed to renew public confidence in the force.
He has promised to “root out” corrupting officers and staff from the organisation and to implement cultural reform.
