Lawrence inquiry called a 'Stalinist show trial'

A new book that likens the Macpherson inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence to a "Stalinist show trial" and claims that it failed to show any evidence of racism within the Metropolitan police sparked a furious fight last night.

A new book that likens the Macpherson inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence to a "Stalinist show trial" and claims that it failed to show any evidence of racism within the Metropolitan police sparked a furious fight last night.

The authors of Racist Murder and Pressure Group Politics, Norman Dennis, George Erdo and Ahmed Al-Shahi, blame the landmark report for rising crime in London and for putting police officers "on trial for nebulous thought crimes".

The report, published today by the Institute for the Study of Civil Society, a right-wing think-tank, was attacked by the lawyer who represented the Lawrence family as "nonsense" and a "step backwards".

The Metropolitan Police also dismissed it and senior police sources described it as "seriously flawed".

The 1999 report by Sir William Macpherson into the inquiry into the murder of the 18-year-old black student in 1993 - in which the Met was accused of institutional racism - has been adopted by the police service and Government as a blueprint for change in the issue of race relations.