Metropolitan Police

A former undercover Metropolitan Police officer, Andrew Coles, is disputing claims that he deceived an animal rights activist into a sexual relationship while infiltrating the Animal Liberation Front in the 1990s. The activist, identified only as Jessica, says he groomed her under a false identity. Coles denies the relationship, but the force's commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, has written that the Metropolitan Police accepts the relationship occurred and is disappointed Coles did not tell the truth to the Undercover Policing Inquiry (UCPI).

British police have decided not to pursue a criminal investigation into a social media post by Sarah Helm, the wife of Prime Minister Andy Burnham's national security adviser, that appeared to endorse Palestine Action, a group proscribed as a terrorist organisation in the UK. The Metropolitan Police said on Saturday that the post 'did not meet the criminal threshold' and that no further action would be taken, reversing an earlier statement that the post was being assessed.