BRITAIN’S former top police officer is to be investigated over claims that he deliberately withheld evidence from the Macpherson Inquiry into the murder of black teenager Stephen Lawrence.

Former Metropolitan Police commissioner John Stevens faces an investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) into his disclosure to the 1998 inquiry, which damningly found evidence of “institutional racism” within the force.

In a letter to the public inquiry led by Sir William Macpherson, Mr Stevens, then deputy commissioner and responsible for overseeing anti-corruption work, stated that no officer or former officer involved in giving evidence was under investigation for corruption.