Lord Blunkett calls for ‘ethical reset’ of police leadership

The police service in England and Wales is “not good enough” and its leadership needs an “ethical reset”, Lord Blunkett has said.

Speaking exclusively to the BBC ahead of the publication of a major report he co-authored on police leadership, the former Labour home secretary said its findings point to weaknesses in leadership, morale and culture across the service.

The report, to be published on Monday, will conclude there are “significant causes for concern” and that police leadership requires a “fundamental overhaul”.

“At the moment, the service isn’t good enough,” Lord Blunkett said. “At the moment, the morale and motivation of many of those working in the service needs a reset.”

The report, produced along with the former Conservative policing minister Lord Herbert for the College of Policing, will recommend a “root and branch modernisation” of recruitment, development and monitoring within the service.

The “comprehensive” review of police leadership was commissioned to ensure the service could respond to evolving threats and deliver government targets, the College of Policing said, in the face of declining public confidence in policing.

None of the 43 police forces in England and Wales were graded “outstanding” for leadership in the most recent inspection round. Almost a third were rated as needing improvement, and two as inadequate.

Lord Blunkett told the BBC’s Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme that the evidence gathered during the review pointed to “a very large number of those at senior level who have been or are under investigation”.

“I think at the moment, there are eight former or serving chief constables who are either under disciplinary action or awaiting the result,” he said. “And that’s out of 43 forces.”

He added: “All of that leads us to believe that a new ethical reset is required.”

The report will highlight challenges including a scarcity of resources, excessive paperwork and officers being “demotivated” by negative and overly risk averse leadership cultures.

Lord Blunkett was also asked whether he thought there was a problem with “two-tier policing”, a term some politicians have used to argue that police may deal with people belonging to ethnic minorities more favourably than white people.

Last month in the House of Commons, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage connected it to the police’s handling of the murder of Henry Nowak, a teenager arrested as he lay dying after his killer had falsely accused him of racism.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer rejected the claims, saying he did not believe there was two-tier policing in the UK, and accused Farage of exploiting the tragedy to create grievance and division.

Lord Blunkett said: “I think there’s a perception. We’ve moved the pendulum.

“It’s gone from the [1999] Macpherson report about outright racism in the force, particularly the reflections in the Met, all the way through to people saying ‘oh, it’s woke’.

“We make it clear in the report that there’s no room for culture wars or woke. It isn’t the job of the police in our country to take sides of any sort. It’s the job of the police to deliver.”