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.
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.
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.
"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.
"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".
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.'"