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Comment: Questions for Ray Lewis
Evening Standard4 Jul 2008
The allegations of financial misconduct and harassment now engulfing Deputy Mayor Ray Lewis are a potentially serious setback for Mayor Boris Johnson. The Mayor has responded quickly, by immediately appointing an independent inquiry chaired by former prisons chief Martin Narey. Its findings will be vitally important for Mr Johnson: Ray Lewis was his most symbolic appointment, a high-profile black community figure with a radical approach to social problems. But Mr Lewis was appointed without a proper vetting process.
Mr Lewis strenuously denies all the allegations. The difficulties lie first in the fact that his accusers are fairly senior Church of England figures. The Bishop of Chelmsford says there is a file of complaints against Mr Lewis from his days as a vicar in East London in the mid-1990s, although we do not know how far these were investigated then. The Bishop also says he is sure that the church authorities would have discussed the allegations with Mr Lewis, and that Mr Lewis would have been told that he had been suspended as a priest - although when the Church wrote to the Mayor saying they knew Mr Lewis, they made no mention of his suspension. The Archdeacon of West Ham also claims he raised some of the allegations of financial misconduct with Mr Lewis at the time.
The Deputy Mayor denies all this, although there is an inconsistency in the account he has given: having said he had never been aware of any of these issues, he appeared to backtrack last night, emphasising rather that he had never had any discussion with the Church about being suspended.
The allegations may well be groundless. But there is a danger in the Mayor being seen to pre-empt the result of the inquiry - not least by refusing to suspend the Deputy Mayor while it investigates. Coming so soon after the departure of advisor James McGrath over controversial remarks, this affair is most unwelcome for Mr Johnson. It is his first big political test as Mayor: how he resolves it could be crucial to his administration's image.
Reader views (1)
It is astounding that the Mayor's office has not completed sufficient checks to establish the background of a man entrusted with the welfare of our precious children. It would seem that the allegations and communications from the Church of England around financial irregularities and a vulnerable person with learning difficulties including the Council's investigation into a complaint of inadequate care for the young vulnerable children in his care should warrant a suspension from duties. At the minimum we should expect that due diligence, unhindered by a conflict of interest and politics is afforded to these important concerns. Equally it is important that Mr Lewis should not be judged as a Black man but an individual whose character is being scrutinized for his fitness to serve the young citizens of London.
- Gloria Hyatt, Liverpoool England, 06/07/2008 00:38
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