Officers in the Metropolitan Police must tell bosses if they are a member – or have ever been a member – of the Freemasons, the force has announced.

The group has been added to the Met’s declarable associations policy along with other “hierarchical organisations”.

The Freemasons, one of the world’s oldest social and charitable organisations, sees members pledge loyalty to the fraternity’s principles and offer mutual support to each other.

The move was recommended by the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel report, a probe into the force’s handling of the unsolved 1987 murder of private detective Daniel Morgan.

‘Recurring suspicion’

Mr Morgan, a 37-year-old father-of-two, was killed with an axe in the car park of the Golden Lion pub in Sydenham, south-east London, in March 1987.

A string of inquiries over the decades unearthed 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”.

The Met’s decision follows a survey of officers and staff which showed two thirds of respondents felt membership of such organisations affected perception of police impartiality and public trust, the force said.

Metropolitan Police Federation general secretary Matt Cane has previously said the move could violate officers’ human rights and would be “unnecessary and wrong”.

But Cdr Simon Messinger said “now is the right time” to address long-standing concerns and that public and staff confidence “must take precedence over the secrecy of any membership organisation”.

He added that the decision did not mean staff could not join the Freemasons or another similar organisation.

Senior officers have discussed the decision with the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE), the headquarters of Freemasonry in England and Wales, the Met said.

In response, UGLE described the policy as “unlawful, disproportionate, unfair and discriminatory”.

In a statement, UGLE said it had “endeavoured to engage constructively and openly with the Met on this matter… and was most disappointed it has reached this decision”.

Commenting on behalf of the Order of Women Freemasons, Adrian Marsh said: “We see this action as unwarranted, and we are carefully considering an appropriate response.

“We will issue a further statement in due course.”

What are Freemasons?

Freemasonry is a centuries-old fraternal organisation with about six million members worldwide, including more than 200,000 in England and Wales.

Its roots lie in the medieval stonemasons’ guilds, and members still meet in “lodges” to carry out secretive initiation rituals and ceremonies based on allegories such as the building of King Solomon’s Temple.

Freemasonry in England was, for 200 years, only open to men. That changed in the 20th Century, but most lodges are men-only or women-only.

Freemasons wear symbolic aprons and progress through degrees of membership, with the phrase “giving someone the third degree” originating from its final stage of initiation.

Famous past members have included Winston Churchill, Arthur Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde.