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Tieng Anh Vui
A Leveson-style inquiry is needed to investigate the ethics of the police, according to a lawyer who represented the family of Stephen Lawrence.
The home secretary has said claims that police tried to smear the family will be looked at by two existing inquiries.
But Michael Mansfield QC said there were broader issues about "accountability and transparency" that should be investigated.
Stephen's father, Neville, has also backed a judge-led inquiry.
Black teenager Stephen, 18, was stabbed to death in an unprovoked attack by a gang of white youths as he waited at a bus stop in south-east London in April 1993.
Undercover officer Peter Francis told the Guardian and Channel 4's Dispatches programme that after Mr Lawrence's killing he posed as an anti-racism campaigner in a hunt for "disinformation" to use against those criticising the police.
Working as part of the Metropolitan Police's now-disbanded Special Demonstration Squad, which specialised in gathering intelligence on political activists, he said he had come under pressure to find "any intelligence that could have smeared the campaign" - including whether any of the family were political activists, involved in demonstrations or drug dealers.
'Not good enough'
Mr Mansfield told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "It's a squad that existed for a very long time. A squad of that size, involving those numbers, involving public expenditure of this kind does not go without authorisation from a very high level.
"I think that's why the public need to have something like the Leveson inquiry in relations to the ethics of the police in a so-called democracy."
Former Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick has also criticised the government's response.
"All Theresa May seems to have done is say, 'Oh, another set of allegations, we'll feed them into existing inquiries,' and that for me is not good enough.
"We need a laser-focused investigation to come up with answers quickly, to try and prevent further damage to the reputation of the police."
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