'STRONG CRITIC'
Why was Labour MP Dawn Butler stopped by police and who was the driver?
LABOUR MP Dawn Butler has accused the Metropolitan Police of being institutionally racist after she was stopped in "a nice car" on Sunday, August 9.
Dawn Butler, the former shadow equalities minister, filmed her confrontation with cops who pulled over her black friend driving through Hackney, East London.
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Who is Dawn Butler?
Dawn Butler is the MP for Brent Central in North London.
She was first elected in 2015 and she was re-elected in the 2019 General Election.
The MP served as a junior minister under Gordon Brown and was shadow women and equalities minister for Jeremy Corbyn for nearly three years.
She stood to be the Labour Party’s deputy leader this year but was eliminated in the first round of voting.
Ms Butler, 50, is a strong critic of police stop-and-search tactics and has often called for the police system to change.
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Why was she pulled over by police?
Scotland Yard said the car was pulled over after an officer entered the wrong details into the police computer which wrongly claimed the car was registered to Yorkshire.
But the MP claimed police stopped the car due to racial profiling.
She said: "We were stopped because we're two black people driving in a nice car in Hackney."
A statement by Met Police said: "Once the mistake was realised the officer sought to explain this to the occupants; they were then allowed on their way. No searches were carried out on any individuals."
It added "one of the occupants" had been contacted by a senior officer.
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Who was the driver?
The former shadow equalities minister said she was with a male friend, who is also black, when they were stopped.
The identity of the driver is unknown, but Ms Butler said he had also experienced being stopped by police before.
What has she accused the police of?
The Labour MP has accused the Metropolitan Police of racial profiling after she and her friend were stopped in Hackney, East London, on Sunday, August 9.
She said police officers stopped her "black male friend" who was driving a "nice car" and questioned her while she was in the passenger seat.
The MP, who was in the passenger seat, claims cops wanted to know what was in the back of the car.
Ms Butler filmed the incident and in the clip police officers say they were searching the area because of "gang and knife crime".
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Ms Butler told she was "angry and annoyed" at what happened and claimed the Metropolitan Police has a "cancerous" problem with institutional racism.
She said: "We were stopped because we're two black people driving in a nice car in Hackney.
"I'm angry because I know it happens all the time every day. And people don't know why they've been stopped.
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"There's one group of people that are disproportionately policed."
She said initially she did not want to go public with the video, but she was annoyed at the way a female officer was treating her.
Ms Butler added: "It is tiring and exhausting and mentally draining if you're black and getting treated like that.
"Yes there are issues but deal with it in an equitable way, in an unbiased way, not in a racist way.
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"If you're profiling cars because they're not from the area that's a ridiculous way to police. If you're stopping cars because of the make that's a ridiculous way to police.
"And if you're stopping cars because of the colour of the people inside them, that's racist."
Writing on Twitter, Chief Superintendent Roy Smith said he had spoken to Ms Butler over the phone, adding that "she has given me a very balanced account of the incident".
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He wrote: "She was positive about one officer and gave feedback on others and the stop.
"We are listening to those concerns and Dawn is quite entitled to raise them."
Ms Butler said she has been stopped before, adding: "I’ve been stopped while driving twice as an MP.
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"My friend has experienced it a number of times.
"That’s why his attitude was just like, ‘Here, have my driving licence. Here we go again.'"
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