Undercover police used the formation of sexual relationships as part of a systematic approach to gaining acceptance to networks of campaigners. It was a deliberate tactic and it now appears that it pre-dates the Special Demonstration Squad of the 1990s. A woman witness has come forward, who helped expose an undercover officer in the 1970s. She slept with the officer, who has now had his identity confirmed by the Inquiry into Undercover Policing.

Many within the police and government circles are still in denial about the systematic use of sexual relationships by undercover officers, as part of their job. This shifts the blame for ‘slipping up’ onto individual officers, who got carried away and broke the rules. The reality is that the Inquiry should be dealing with the whole episode as state sponsored abuse.

My Oral Question to the Minister will be taken on March 21st

“To ask HMG what communications they have had, over the last 50 years, with police forces regarding the tactic of undercover police officers forming sexual relationships to develop their cover stories?”