Policing in Britain has “adopted the language of activism” and official guidance has “over-corrected” to combat accusations of racism, one of the UK’s most senior officers has said.

Sir Stephen Watson, the chief constable of Greater Manchester police, said he did not believe that “two-tier policing” existed or that forces were biased against white people.

Police had, however, allowed that perception to take hold in part as a result of anti-racism guidance that advised officers to treat suspects differently depending on their ethnicity.

Watson said the official guidance, produced by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) in 2025, should be reviewed after the murder of Henry Nowak, whose treatment by officers prompted riots in Southampton and accusations of two-tier policing from Nigel Farage and the Trump administration.

“Particularly in the light of the tragic murder of Henry Nowak, I do understand that this idea that two-tier policing takes place is now widespread,” he said. “I don’t think it’s justified, but I can understand where it’s coming from.”

Watson, who is tipped as the potential successor to Sir Mark Rowley as the head of the Metropolitan police, said forces must be “a little less timid about making sure we emphasise our impartiality”.

He said policing had “in some cases over-corrected” in official guidance which has “allowed the impression to take hold that we’re not policing without fear or favour”.

“I think we have some lessons to learn … Perhaps we have been uncritical in adopting certain elements of language. We’ve adopted the language of activism,” he said.

“We’ve sometimes taken on board what are challenged concepts and we’ve written those into policy and intent – all with the best of reasons – but these issues then get held up almost as exhibit X, as the proof that we do not treat people equally.”

After criticism in the wake of Nowak’s murder, the NPCC is reviewing its 2025 “anti-racism commitment”, which states that officers should “respond to individuals and communities according to their specific needs, circumstances and experiences, with understanding that these will be racialised and with the aim of reducing harm. It does not mean treating everyone ‘the same’ or being ‘colour blind’ (racial equality)”.

The policing minister, Sarah Jones, said earlier this month it was important to be “mindful of the fact that there has been a history of racism in policing” but called the guidance wrong.

Watson has been called Britain’s “anti-woke” police chief after he instructed officers not to take the knee during Black Lives Matters protests in 2021 because it would undermine impartiality. He said he would “probably kneel before the queen, God and Mrs Watson, that’s it”.

Speaking to reporters in Stockport, Watson said forces should not “use the language of being anti-racist” because it implies officers have “some activist role”.

“Of course we’re fiercely opposed to racism but we’re the police,” he said. “We are not activists. If we overstep … this is what then informs the public perception of two-tier policing.”

Watson was appointed chief constable of England’s second largest police force in 2021 after Greater Manchester police was put into special measures over a series of scandals in which a fifth of crimes went unrecorded.

The force has since more than doubled its number of arrests, and offences including theft, shoplifting and criminal damage fell faster than the national average in 2025, according to official crime figures.

Watson said British policing faced a bigger challenge than at any point in his near-40 year career because “distrust, disorder and division” was more obvious across society than it has been at any time” since the 1980s.

He said it would not be surprising if widespread disorder erupted across England again this summer “given the temperature of contemporary events”, with social media amplifying inflammatory rhetoric from high-profile figures.

He said how public figures conducted themselves was “a matter for them and their conscience” and that it was vital that police “don’t do anything to fuel the fire”.