Is the Home Secretary a big, fat liar?

This morning the new Home Secretary [tag]John Reid[/tag] gave his first interview since taking over the job to Radio 4’s Today programme.

It was interesting for a number of reasons not least of which was the fact that he appears to have lied about having seen a [tag]BBC[/tag] investigation which alleges that the detective in charge of the [tag]Stephen Lawrence[/tag] murder investigation was paid off by the father of one of the accused.

Stephen Lawrence was an 18-year-old black A-level student who was stabbed to death by five white youths in Eltham, south-east London in 1993. The case became famous because of the appalling way in which the Metropolitan Police dealt with the investigation. The case against five youths – one of which was the son of a notorious local gangster – fell through and led to an inquiry.

That inquiry found that no one officer was to blame but did conclude that the Met was “institutionally racist” and prompted a huge review of the organisation.

Now, as well as finding a significant flaw in the alibi of one of the alleged attackers, the BBC has former drugs squad officer Neil Putman confessing that the original investigating officer, Detective Sergeant John Davidson, was being paid off by Clifford Norris, the father of one of the suspects.

The BBC programme has been trailed heavily in the press today obviously in order to make as many people as possible aware of the programme before “The Boys Who Killed Stephen Lawrence” is shown tonight at 9pm on BBC1.

However, when asked about the allegations in the programme during his radio interview, Home Secretary John Reid said: “I did actually see that last night and I don’t watch much television but as it happened last night after I had done my third statement to Parliament I watched a bit and saw it and found it, er, disturbing.”

The clear implcation is that John Reid believes the programme was on last night – a fair assumption considering the press coverage today – and thereby *lied* about having seen it.

The only other possibility is that the Home Office had a tape of the programme and it was that John Reid saw last night. That, no doubt, will be the Home Office’s explanation, but listen again. It is very clear at least to this listener that Mr Reid is under the mistaken impression that he watched a bit of the programme last night on the television.

The question if Mr Reid did tell a porkie is: should the Home Secretary of the UK really be lying about watching a programme about hugely significant corruption and racism with the Metropolitan police force? And if he is prepared to lie in such an off-the-cuff manner, how can we believe anything he ever says in future?

Listen to the clip here. Or the full recording on the BBC Today site here . [RealPlayer].