Sir Mark Rowley

FURIOUS Freemasons threatened legal action against the police commissioner after he doubled-down on what they see as “misleading representations” of the ancient order.

UGLE, the United Grand Lodge of England, the Order of Women Freemasons, and the Honourable Fraternity of Ancient Freemasons –based in Queen Street, Covent Garden – sent a “letter before claim” ahead of a potential judicial review in the High Court.

It follows a decision by the Metropolitan Police Service to force all officers to declare Freemasonry membership for the first time, in a move it said is “absolutely necessary” as part of a drive to clean up its image and free its investigations from accusations of corruption.

Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley described the group as “a boys’ club” in a radio interview this week.

Adrian Marsh, speaking on behalf of UGLE and associated orders, said: “Freemasonry has the highest moral and ethical standards, standards that have been a cornerstone of its identity since the earliest days of organised Freemasonry over 300 years ago. Our members embody our core values of integrity, friendship, res­pect and service, and this can be seen across London, the rest of the country, through tireless work within our communities to help those in need. Within individual lodges, we enjoy the timeless traditions that make our organisation unique around the globe.

“The decision by the Metropolitan Police casts an aura of mistrust over the entire Freemason community. Given the obvious, detrimental impact on our members… we now have no choice but to take legal action to challenge this unlawful decision”, he said.

Earlier in the week he had said: “We feel compelled to respond to, and correct, several inaccurate and misleading representations of both the recent consultation held within the Metropolitan Police and Freemasonry in general.”

The MPS had said that a survey of 2,000 officers had come back with one-third against the move to declare Freemasonry membership, with two-thirds backing the move.

Marsh said the survey pool was under five per cent of a total 46,000 officers employers by the MPS, and not enough for a major policy change.

UGLE had not been shown any evidence that there was an issue with Freemasonry influencing the police in its investigations or operations, he said.

The MPS had said that a review was launched following a report into the unsolved 1987 murder of private investigator Daniel Morgan, a long-running case that has unearthed multiple allegations of corruption.

The 2021 report said police officers’ membership of the Freemasons had been “a source of recurring suspicion and mistrust in the investigations”.

Sir Mark told the Nick Ferrari show on LBC on Friday: “There are many, many women officers in the organisation particularly, who are massively relieved at this decision because they feel they are disadvantaged by, sadly, a boy’s club.”

The Freemasons said that the Order of Women Freemasons and the Honourable Fraternity of Ancient Freemasons, also based at UGLE headquarters took “particular offence to this misleading and inaccurate statement”.

“Women have been Freemasons now for over a century, longer than they have had the right to vote. We are proud of our history and heritage and inaccurate representations such as this are disappointing,” they said.