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Cops spend £18m on informants – but won’t say if they targeted BLM groups

Exclusive: Forces said revealing whether anti-racist activists had been paid off could expose the UK to a higher risk of terror attack

By Jenna Corderoy
Cops spend £18m on informants – but won’t say if they targeted BLM groups
Police watch people attending the Black Trans Lives Matter march in London, June 2020 | SOPA Images Limited/Alamy Live News
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Police have refused to say whether they are spending public money on buying off anti-racism activists, claiming that releasing the information could leave the UK “at risk” of terror attacks.

openDemocracy can reveal that forces across the UK spent at least £18m on informants between 2015/16 and 2020/21.

But police would not tell us how much, if anything, was spent on people linked to Black Lives Matter groups.

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