AS A FORMER prosecutor, Nazir Afzal employs a forensic approach to evidence get to the bottom of a challenging problem. His 2023 report into the culture of the Lon don Fire Brigade, commissioned by London mayor Sadiq Khan, shone a disturbing light on the racism, misogyny and homo and transphobia which existed. Now, that work has led to “a game changer” among other public services. “I found the fire service to be institutionally racist, misogynist, homophobic, and with industrial levels of bullying and harassment,” he told the GG2Power List. “It then led to enormous reckoning amongst fire services throughout the country. South Wales fire service was taken over by the Welsh government which will look into their core commitments and the leadership.
So, every other fire service began looking at themselves. They had no choice, because people felt emboldened after our review to speak up about this.” Other countries picked up his work, and Australia invited Afzal to speak at a conference for emergency services which led to his speaking with federal ministers about toxic cultures in workplaces. He also informally advised Baroness Casey in her excoriating report into cultural practices in the Metropolitan Police, and he now trains senior leaders in best practices. Afzal is also the chair of the Catholic church’s safeguarding standards agency, and last November he met the pope. “Given that we’ve only had this independent regulator for two and a half years, they think it’s global best practice. We’re now having conversations with the Vatican about what learning we can do,” he told the Power List. In February, the Nursing and Midwifery Council, which regulates the UK’s 808,000 nurses and midwives, has asked Afzal to carry out a review into its culture.
“People of colour who are in positions of leadership will tell you that we are not immune from racism, that we are not vaccinated against it. Sometimes it ap pears in very sophisticated forms and sometimes appears in unsophisticated forms,” he commented. “It’s a really bizarre thing. When we say something is racist, we’re attacked for doing that, you wouldn’t do that if you said we have cancer. The problem with racism is that nobody is allowed to speak about the cultural war that we’re in.” Afzal has never been unafraid to point out injustice, and he is clear that he is a feminist.
“I pay tribute to my mother more than anybody else on this. She came to this country, uneducated mother of seven children. After I was born, after my brothers and sisters were born, she devoted herself to helping other women in the community. There is no reason why they should be treated any differently, that’s basically what she said,” he said. “Then the more I learned, the more survivor groups and women’s groups and NGOs that came to see me, the more I realised this was and is the biggest issue facing not the country but globally. Women’s rights in 2024 are under attack everywhere, despite all the progress that we think we’ve made.
I’m not the expert here, it’s the women’s groups and the NGOs and the people who workday in day out on this who have honoured me by sharing their stories with me, that make me want to do more for them. And why should my daughter be treated any differently than then than my sons?” He remains chancellor of the University of Manchester, which celebrates its bicentenary, and this summer he will welcome a new vice chancellor. “Now, I’ve got a blank piece of paper there, and I’ve already begun conversations with departments about research they’re carrying out and whether or not there’s a gap here,” he said. “Maybe we should be doing something about women’s rights, for example, maybe we should doing a bit more about health inequalities, which we all know have really been exposed during Covid. So, I’m using my convening powers, for want of a better term, and whatever leverage I have from my position to tap into the extraordinary knowledge that’s in the university.” Just as he was when he was a prosecutor - he brought down a Rochdale child abuse gang when he was the chief prosecutor in the north-west of Eng land - Afzal remains infinitely brave. He suggested Boris Johnson could face prosecution for misconduct in public office over his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic. Afzal’s older broth er Umar died of coronavirus while isolating at home. Weeks later, his mother also passed away. He previously launched a campaign to call for misogyny to be made a hate crime. What this Birmingham-born, son of Pashtun immigrants from north ern Pakistan, does is to speak unpalatable truth to power.
“I’ve been beaten black and blue several times, physically, by racists. In 2006-7 I was on an al-Qaeda hitlist.
After the grooming gang case, the far right attacked my house and we had panic alarms in the house. It was a really painful period. I can take it, but my family shouldn’t have to take it,” he said. “My children were very young, and I was teaching them about panic alarms, and they shouldn’t have had to experience that. That’s the closest I’ve ever come to quitting. And the only reason I didn’t quit was the people around me. Not necessarily my family, but my networks. Once you got through that period, I felt if you want to kill me, get on with it.” Afzal is loyal to his old boss, Sir Keir Starmer. In election year, he thinks it is time to give Starmer a chance to run the country. “When all that was happening, he [Starmer] knew I needed help. He told my colleagues, that Nazir will not have any meetings between 9 and 10am, between 3 and 4pm, because I needed to be available for the school run. He told them that I would not be invited to any national meetings that required an overnight stay, because I needed to be at home to provide re assurance to my family,” he said.
“Basically, I base my judgment on the fact that he stood up for me. He did so without me asking. As a leader he recognised I needed help, and then he empowered me to fix how poor we were as a nation in tackling child sexual abuse.” By any measure, he sees the darker side of humanity, yet Afzal remains optimistic. “I’ve seen victims of crimes stand up to their abusers so, yes, I’ve seen the worst of humanity, but I have seen the best. We are still in the foothills of our journey. I love this country, and I’m proud of this country, but it makes me sad that there are so many people who want to do it down and by doing it down, they are not giving opportunity and potential to people who have it.”