In the 1980s, a sensational book accused members of using their affiliations for nepotistic gain, to the detriment of institutions such as the police, the judiciary, the government and the City of London. Some reckon masonic influence still pervades certain professions. Garry Rogers, who worked as an undercover police officer in Manchester until he left in 2005, says masons had huge influence over the department he worked in. “It would be ‘How did so and so get promoted?’ Well they’ve got the right handshake,” he says. After he was falsely accused of whistleblowing on a colleague who was allegedly a member, “they ruined my career”, he claims. “Reports were altered, including a report in my personal file to say I wasn’t to be trusted.”
This autumn the Metropolitan police opened a consultation into whether freemasons should be made to declare themselves, as local councillors who are members must, saying concerns had been raised by officers and staff about the impact it could be having on “investigations, promotions and misconduct”.
The decision was partly prompted by a scandal: the unsolved murder of private detective Daniel Morgan, killed with an axe in a pub car park in 1987. After five police inquiries and an inquest, an independent panel in 2021 accused the Met of “institutional corruption” over its investigation of the case, which it said was overshadowed by “suspicion and mistrust” as a result of freemason affiliations. It recommended that all police officers and police staff register their membership “of any organisation, including the freemasons, which might call their impartiality into question or give rise to the perception of a conflict of loyalties”.