Spycops whistleblower says bosses stopped him revealing surveillance of Stephen Lawrence family

Peter Francis said that while undercover he was given specific instructions to pick up any information that could be used to stop or undermine the Lawrences’ campaign. Photograph: Undercover Policing Inquiry/Youtube

Senior police officers resisted the idea of disclosing the covert monitoring of the family of the murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence to a public inquiry, a whistleblower has alleged.

Peter Francis, the whistleblower, said he wanted to reveal the surveillance of the family and their campaign by undercover police officers to the public inquiry that was led by Sir William Macpherson in the late 1990s.