The country’s most senior police officer would like to pay off older white police officers so that they could be replaced by black and ethnic minority recruits.

Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the head of the Metropolitan police, said that he supported “incentivising” older officers to leave so that the force could become more representative, but there was not enough money.

His comments were made at a screening of the first episode of a BBC documentary series on the Met, which highlighted how London boroughs with a wide racial mix were often being policed in the main by white officers.

Sir Bernard said that the number of black and ethnic minority officers had vastly improved but it was impossible to keep pace with the changes in London’s