University under pressure to sack controversial former undercover spy Bob Lambert

A university has been coming under pressure to sack one of its lecturers who has become known as one of the most controversial undercover officers deployed by the police.

Campaigners have been seeking to persuade London Metropolitan University to remove Bob Lambert from his academic post.

So far the university has backed Lambert, saying they have “absolute faith in him as a lecturer” and is a “valued member” of staff”.

Lambert has been at the centre of many of the revelations about the police’s use of undercover officers.

To recap, he went undercover in the 1980s to infiltrate animal rights and environmental campaigners for four years.

He fathered a child with an activist, known as Jacqui, before abandoning them. The Metropolitan Police has paid more than £400,000 to Jacqui who has been profoundly traumatised after discovering by chance that the father of her son was an undercover police officer.

Lambert also deceived another woman into having a long-term relationship with him, as part of an elaborate attempt to lend “credibility” to his alter ego.

He also stole the identity of a dead boy to shore up his fake identity, been accused of setting fire to Debenhams, appeared in court using his alter ego rather than his real name, and co-wrote the leaflet at the heart of the notorious McLibel trial. In the 1990s, he was promoted to run the operations of the Special Demonstration Squad and was a key figure in the secret operation to spy on the family of Stephen Lawrence.

Since he left Special Branch in 2007, he has taught at three universities.

But the question now is whether a man like Lambert with his undercover past should be employed teaching students?

The campaigners say no. Alex Neve, from the Islington Against Spies campaign group (see here), has said :”We’re saying he’s not a suitable person to be working here, supervising students, some of whom may be vulnerable, when he’s shown evidence of having a very dubious attitude towards women and consent in the past. Can he be trusted not to abuse the power that he’s abused in the past? I don’t think he can.”

Reports of a demonstration can be found here in the Islington Gazette, the Islington Tribune and Islington Now, and a public meeting organised by the Campaign Opposing Police Surveillance and the university’s UNISON Branch here and here.

Observer columnist Nick Cohen argues in this article that Lambert is “uniquely unqualified” to hold his academic post, adding that the security establishment has not disowned him.

London Metropolitan University has defended him, saying : “Bob Lambert is a valued member of our criminology department, where he is popular with both students and staff.

“While we recognise the mistakes Bob made in his police career, for which he has apologised and displayed deep regret, we have absolute faith in him as a lecturer and member of our community.

“During a thirty-one year policing career, Bob made a significant contribution to tackling terrorism, political violence and hate crimes in London which, along with his strong academic record, makes him a valuable asset to criminology teaching at London Met.”

According to this biography, Lambert is a senior lecturer at the university’s John Grieve Policing Centre, teaching students about terrorism, counter-terrorism, far right political violence and anti-Muslim hate crimes.

He retains his academic post at St Andrews University where he has been a lecturer in terrorism studies. There have been protests there too (see here and here).

However there is a mystery - as yet, not fully explained - about the third academic post he held. In 2008, Lambert started work at Exeter University researching Islamophobia and counter-terrorism. He became the co-director of the university’s European Muslim Research Centre, embarking on a decade-long programme of research.

Exeter University has confirmed that Lambert resigned from the university in October 2011 - the same month his undercover past was exposed.

We asked Exeter University why he resigned but, after some delay, they refused to explain.

Some might wonder why Lambert departed from one university, but manages to keep his jobs at two other universities.

UPDATE

Islington Against Police Spies is organising another demonstration at the university at lunchtime on January 30 (details here).

Meanwhile the university’s Unison branch has published a statement in case it appears that it supports the call to sack Lambert. The statement can be found here.