Nigel Farage wants the police to be more ethnically diverse

The Ukip leader said quotas were insulting, however

Police officers in uniform (Getty Images)

The leader of Ukip has said he supports a Government push to make police forces more ethnically diverse.

Nigel Farage told LBC Radio that people who worked for the police should reflect Britain’s social make-up.

“I do understand that we want a police for that reflects the society in which we live and it’s a question of how we get to that and whether we need to use positive discrimination,” he said.

Asked whether he supported moves in the metropolitan police to recruit more black officers, he replied: “Yes, I do, and actually it’s working. There’s quite a radical change within the Met.”

The Ukip leader however said he believed moves to increase diversity using quotas were “insulting” and could undermine the public’s trust in the police.

Last week Theresa May warned that police forces around the UK were too white, with none of England and Wales’ 43 forces ethnically resembling the communities they served.

Ukip leader Nigel Farage

“Incredibly, four forces do not employ any black or black British police officers at all, and female officers make up 28% of all police officers but 51% of the total population,” she said in a speech.

“This comes on top of existing statistics showing that there are only two BME chief officers in England and Wales, and eleven forces have no BME officers above chief inspector rank. This is simply not good enough.”

An analysis by the Independent reported in August found that black people are still far more likely to be stop and searched by police than any other ethnic groups.

In one county, Dorset, a black person was 17 times more likely to be stopped and searched than a white person.

Theresa May said earlier this year she was prepared to legislate to curb the “excessive and disproportionate” use of the powers if the racial disparity continued.