POLICE were “not only sanctioned” to spy on Stephen Lawrence’s family after his murder but also “rewarded by those at the top,” the Undercover Policing Inquiry heard today.

The latest phase of the long-running spycops probe, which resumed this week, is examining the Special Demonstration Squad’s activities from the early 1990s to 2008. 

The inquiry heard how police put Mr Lawrence’s family under surveillance after the 18-year-old was murdered in a racist attack while waiting for a bus in Eltham in 1993.

Speaking on behalf of his mother, Baroness Doreen Lawrence, Imran Khan KC said: “During the course of her grief, she was quite undeservedly and unlawfully spied upon by those meant to serve and protect her — and that this was not only sanctioned but rewarded by those at the top.”

Mr Khan said his client was “keenly sought out” by a previous home secretary when the inquiry was announced in 2015, who “was at pains to assure her that they were not involved and had nothing to do with the activities alleged.”

He said: “It confirmed to her that the home secretary of the day was involved in the matters under investigation at this inquiry.”

On Monday, Peter Skelton KC issued an apology on behalf of the Met Police, which Baroness Lawrence “proudly” rejected.

Mr Khan said she found it “insensitive, impersonal, devoid of contrition” and “not worth the paper it was written on.”

He said that Ms Lawrence considers it “essential” that the inquiry examine whether murders such as her son’s could have been prevented if the Met Police had devoted as much “time, money and energy” to the far right as it did in her case.

“If undercover policing had been properly directed at racist gangs and far-right groups, which existed during the period of the BNP’s prominence in south-east London, she wonders, could the murder of Stephen Lawrence and other racist attacks have been prevented?”

One officer, listed as HN81, has refused to give oral evidence and is set to apply for a judicial review, arguing that he lives overseas.

The officer infiltrated the Movement for Justice, which had supported Mr Lawrence’s family, along with his colleague Peter Francis, however parts of their evidence conflict.