'Joining a gym places police at more risk of corruption than the freemasons' claims source as row over declarations grows

JOINING a gym places police officers at more risk of coming into contact with criminals and corruption than freemasonry, a source has claimed.

The policing source spoke out after the Met Police announced this week that from Thursday, December 11, all of its officers would have to decalre past or current freemasonry membership, due to concerns over potential corruption.

The source said: "Joining the gym is more of a risk of coming into contact with criminals in terms of what's going on in today's world."

It comes as the College of Policing said that officers from other police forces should be decalring any freemasonry membership.

The college's Authorised Professional Practice (APP) on Vetting requires officers to declare "Notifiable Associations" – links to groups or individuals that could pose a risk or conflict with policing duties, especially concerning counter-corruption, with each force having its own specific policy based on this national framework.

A College of Policing spokesman said: "The Met Police has a different system of declarable associations, but other police forces have notifiable associations, and although it does not specifically state freemasonry as a notifiable association, the onus is on the police officer to notify their force of any notifiable association they have that could pose a risk to or conflcit with policing duties."

The spokesman suggested this should include freemasonry membership, but added that the college is not intent on making the guidance any clearer in light of the new change by the Met.

The United Grand Lodge of England, the Order of Women Freemasons and the Honourable Fraternity of Ancient Freemasons continue to criticise the Met decision and are considering their options.

In a new statement released today, December 13 2025, they said they note the comments made by the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Sir Mark Rowley on Friday’s edition of Nick Ferrari’s LBC radio show.

It said: "We feel compelled to respond to, and correct, several inaccurate and misleading representations of both the recent consultation held within the Metropolitan Police and Freemasonry in general.

"In the interview, the Commissioner claimed that 'two thirds of our officers think it ought to be declarable.'

"This contradicts the Met’s own statement, which claimed that '2,000 colleagues completed the survey.' "Considering that the Metropolitan Police’s website states that there are 46,000 Met Police officers and staff, this statement is evidently false. It also highlights that the survey being used as the basis of the policy change was only completed by under 5 percent of officers and staff.

"The Commissioner goes on to say: 'we’ve looked at the intelligence picture today, and a combination of factors I’m satisfied that this is absolutely necessary.'

"At no point has this evidence been shared with us, to allow us to address concerns and if necessary, take action. We call on the Commissioner’s Office to release this intelligence as soon as practical, to enable us and the public to evaluate its credibility as a reason for this policy to be enacted.

"Towards the end of the interview, the Commissioner states: 'There are many, many women officers in the organisation particularly, who are massively relieved at this decision because they feel they are disadvantaged by, sadly, a boy’s club.'

"As proud female Freemasons, we in the Order of Women Freemasons and the Honourable Fraternity of Ancient Freemasons take particular offense to this misleading and inaccurate statement. Women have been Freemasons now for over a century, longer than they have had the right to vote. We are proud of our history and heritage and inaccurate representations such as this are disappointing.

"As per our statement released on Thursday 11th December 2025, we continue to discuss our next steps on this matter and will be making a further announcement on our intentions in due course."