Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, has been forced to revise his inquiry into racism in the Metropolitan Police before it has even started, after a frosty reception from the force's governing body.

Mr Johnson proposed the inquiry after a group representing black police officers in the capital criticised the "hostile and racist environment" in the force and called on ethnic minority recruits to boycott the Met.

Today, however, as the Mayor presided over his first meeting of the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) since taking office, he was told forcefully that the investigation that he envisaged was an expensive, unnecessary duplication of earlier inquiries, and would be open to accusations of bias.

Mr Johnson has asked Cindy Butts, a member of the police authority, to head the inquiry, but other authority members said that this would look like an inside job. Len Duvall, a former MPA chairman, pointed out that the authority itself was "not immune" from accusations of racism.

“When someone from the MPA is leading this process there are people out there who will not be satisfied and always say there is something wrong," Mr Duvall said.

“We as an organisation have not been immune from these charges, some of them may be absolutely right, some may not be right.”

Lord Toby Harris, a veteran London politician and another former chairman of the MPA, agreed: “I am slightly concerned what we are in the process of doing is creating something that could be the world’s biggest long-grass job.

“Clearly there are issues and concerns [surrounding the treatment of ethnic minority officers], but I have experience of setting up the Morris inquiry [on race and faith issues] which was inspired by the Authority, but entirely independent.

“It took a long time, it was very expensive and we would be well placed to revisit some of the recommendations from that inquiry and some other inquiries that have taken place.”

Mr Johnson said that he would review how the race inquiry was handled. He insisted that he would work “hand in glove” with members of the MPA and wanted to make a fresh start.

The furore started after the Metropolitan Black Police Association told Times Online yesterday that it was planning a boycott on ethnic minority recruitment.

The boycott threat is the most serious challenge to the Met's record on race since the devastating conclusions of Sir William Macpherson's report into the Stephen Lawrence murder investigation ten years ago.

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