Andy Burnham vows to ‘challenge culture' after week of bad press for Greater Manchester Police

Andy Burnham says he will continue to ‘challenge GMP to improve the culture’ following a week of bad press for the force.

The mayor was speaking to reporters at his office on Oxford Street on Friday afternoon (July 26), where protesters had blocked the road less than 24 hours before. It followed a protest outside Rochdale Police Station, where Muhammad Fahir is from.

The Mayor of Greater Manchester's announcement came after the IOPC confirmed it would start a criminal investigation against the officer filmed kicking and stamping on Mr Fahir while he was on the floor at Manchester Airport on Tuesday (July 23). Footag eof the incident came to light less than a week after the Baird Review was published, which found GMP treated some women in custody ‘like meat’.

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“Policing is challenging all over the country. Police forces everywhere are facing challenges. They are not unique to Greater Manchester, we have seen disturbances in other places very recently — these have been difficult times for everybody,” My Burnham said.

“Police forces have been out there dealing with some of these issues in society, and I want to say I recognise the difficult job that are officers do in Greater Manchester. It’s a really difficult and demanding job — I am not making any comment on the individual situation, I am making a general comment here. It’s hard to be policing communities on the frontline at this moment in time.

“One thing I would say is something of things you have raised are [known about] because we are challenging GMP to go further to improve the culture in the organisation. That brings some things out into the public domain. We will never say