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• Reference: 2020/4060
• Question by: Peter Whittle
• Meeting date: 19 November 2020

On 7 October 2020, conservative think tank the Bow Group received an email from the Metropolitan Police, informing its vice-president, the historian Dr David Starkey, that he was being investigated under the Public Order Act for stirring up racial hatred, due to words he used in an online interview in June 2020. Is Dr Starkey currently under any form of investigation by the Metropolitan Police and if so, for what?

• Reference: 2020/4061
• Question by: Peter Whittle
• Meeting date: 19 November 2020

The comedian Sophie Duker appeared on Frankie Boyle’s BBC2 panel show New World Order which was broadcast on 10 September 2020. She addressed the issue of systemic racism, stating: ‘White power is Trump Tower but when we say we want to kill whitey, we don't really mean we want to kill whitey.’ The comedian then quipped ‘we do’. Given that equality of treatment is one of the guiding principles which underpins our legal system and Darren Grimes has apparently been singled out for the same issue, when are the Metropolitan Police going to be interviewing Sophie Duker?

• Reference: 2020/4062
• Question by: Peter Whittle
• Meeting date: 19 November 2020

To ask the Mayor how many individuals have been directly recruited to the Metropolitan Police at the rank of superintendent over the last eight years, without working their way through the ranks, which had hitherto been the long-established custom and practice in the Met?

• Reference: 2020/4063
• Question by: Peter Whittle
• Meeting date: 19 November 2020

How much reputational damage do you believe the Metropolitan Police has sustained over the last five years, as a consequence of implementing its fast-track recruitment programmes?

• Reference: 2020/4064
• Question by: Peter Whittle
• Meeting date: 19 November 2020

To ask the Mayor whether the Metropolitan Police Special Demonstration Squad (undercover police officers) still exists? 1 1 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/man-fell-love-lived-five-years-u…

• Reference: 2020/4065
• Question by: Peter Whittle
• Meeting date: 19 November 2020

I was disconcerted to learn of the involvement of the Metropolitan Police on 1 October 2020 in fining Bim’s Burgers of Ilford Lane £1,000 for allowing a customer to order a takeaway burger at exactly 10pm, which was served four minutes later. A spokesperson for the restaurant said that, given the customer had started placing the order ahead of the nightly curfew, staff believed serving them fell within the law. In a tweet, since deleted, the Redbridge branch of the Metropolitan Police wrote: ‘Bims Burger (sic), Ilford Lane breached Covid-19 restrictions by having one customer inside the premises waiting for...

• Reference: 2020/4067
• Question by: Peter Whittle
• Meeting date: 19 November 2020

Given that Historic England - the statutory advisor to central and local government on heritage proposals - has clearly stated its position that contested statues should not be removed, can the Mayor provide assurance that the Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm will abide by that guidance and not recommend the removal of any statues?

• Reference: 2020/4068
• Question by: Peter Whittle
• Meeting date: 19 November 2020

Further to that same guidance from Historic England, can the Mayor confirm that he would follow it and not support the removal of the statues of Thomas Guy and Sir Robert Clayton from Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospitals?

• Reference: 2020/4069
• Question by: Peter Whittle
• Meeting date: 19 November 2020

Given the Government’s plans to give the Secretary of State for Housing the final say on planning applications relating to statues, due to their national significance, does the Mayor recognise that public statues in the capital have a national significance and agree that their future is not entirely a matter for local/devolved government?

• Reference: 2020/4070
• Question by: Peter Whittle
• Meeting date: 19 November 2020

Your press release of 28 July 2020, announces the formation of a ‘Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm.’ What do you understand to be the meaning of the term ‘public realm’ - most specifically in the context of private property, non-public spaces and government-owned land?