Met Police officers within the Freemasons could also be compelled to inform bosses if they’re members of the secretive society
Met Police officers could soon be forced to disclose whether they are Freemasons to stop them favouring their fellow members.
Britain’s biggest force has started a consultation on adding the group to its declarable associations policy.
Freemasons take an oath of loyalty to the fraternity’s principles and to supporting their ‘brothers’.
The Met does not currently collect information about how many officers are Masons and has never banned them from joining.
But Scotland Yard said concerns have been raised by officers and staff about the impact that membership of such a group could be having on ‘investigations, promotions and misconduct’.
Existing examples of declarable associations set out in the policy include people with criminal convictions, those dismissed from policing, and lawful professions like private investigation or journalism.
Officers and staff already have to declare any association with an individual or group that might compromise their integrity or damage the reputation of the force.
The move was recommended by the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel report – a probe into the force’s handling of the unsolved 1987 murder of private detective Daniel Morgan.
The 37-year-old father-of-two was killed with an axe in the car park of the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham, south-east London, on March 10 1987.
A string of inquiries over the decades unearthed allegations of corruption.
Freemasons take an oath of loyalty to the fraternity’s principles and to supporting their ‘brothers’. Pictured is Freemasons Hall in central London
The 2021 report said police officers’ membership of the Freemasons had been ‘a source of recurring suspicion and mistrust in the investigations’.
London Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan, who is responsible for setting the strategic direction of policing in London, has previously ruled out a compulsory register of freemasonry in the Met, saying it could go against officers’ human rights.
Met Commander Simon Messinger said: ‘We are now consulting on a proposal to add to that list involvement in Freemasonry – and potentially other organisations that could call impartiality into question or give rise to conflict of loyalties – and are keen to hear the views of our officers and staff.
‘This does not prevent any member of staff joining the Freemasons or another similar organisation, but it means we will know who is a part of it.
‘Strengthening the trust both our own staff and London’s communities have in the Met is a core part of our New Met for London plan and ambitions.’
Senior officers will be discussing the proposed policy change with the United Grand Lodge of England, the headquarters of Freemasonry in England and Wales.
The Met said it now has one of the strongest entry vetting policies in UK policing and refusal rates have more than doubled from 5 per cent in 2020-21 to 11 per cent in 23-24.
Freemasons’ origins in Britain seem to date back at least to the late 14th century.
The group believe their roots lie in the masons who built the great medieval cathedrals, such as Salisbury, started in 1220.
By the end of the 17th century, there were several lodges – as the individual Masonic societies are known – dotted around the British Isles, with at least seven in London.
It was in the capital that four lodges came together in June 1717 to form the first ‘Grand Lodge’, which published its first minutes and constitution in 1723.
In 1776, the Freemasons opened a sumptuous hall as their Grand Lodge in Great Queen Street, Central London. This was replaced in the Thirties by the monolithic Freemasons’ Hall.
Their web of influence spread throughout the country and society. Some lodges met at taverns and inns – and today, many taxi drivers, plumbers and dustmen are Masons. There are two lodges for women Masons.
While the Freemasons insist their private meetings do not mask anything nefarious, that was not universally so. In the late 18th century, for example, a lodge in Brentford was accused of plotting to kill George III.
The conspiracy did nothing to deter his two sons, George IV and William IV, from becoming Masons.
Freemasonry really took off in the wake of the two world wars. In the three years after World War I, 350 lodges were established, and in three years after World War II, nearly 600 were set up.
Today, there are around 170,000 Freemasons throughout England and Wales.
