SURREY Police and Crime Commissioner David Munro has been cleared of treating Kingston Lib Dem county councillor Shiraz Mirza in a “racially motivated manner”.

Mr Mirza, a Pakistani-born Muslim, served as Kingston’s first Asian mayor in 2000 and again in 2007. He was hired by former Surrey PCC Kevin Hurley in 2013 as a special adviser on equalities and diversity.

Mr Mirza lodged a complaint that Mr Munro had treated him in a racially motivated manner that had caused him personal distress, with the Independent Police Complaints Commission, following Mr Munro’s decision, when he was elected in May, to abolish the role of special adviser on equalities and diversity.

Welcoming the IPCC’s decision, Mr Munro said: “ I am sorry that councillor Mirza feels he has suffered personal distress as a result of my decision not to extend the contract with Surrey Partnerships Ltd but I can categorically state that the rationale had absolutely nothing to do with his race.

“Equally the decision should not undermine or devalue the important work that he has evidently undertaken during his time with the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner which I thank him for.

“The decision was taken in the best interests of the Surrey public and is one that I stand by. I have already had a number of really positive meetings with groups and individuals representing Surrey’s many diverse communities and I look forward to further building upon these relationships in the future.”

Responding, Mr Mirza said he was “hugely disappointed” by the committee’s decision and was considering taking further legal action.

“They’ve just passed me off,” he said. “They’ve been hiding behind the IPCC. They’ve taken three or four months to just look into one word.They haven’t looked at it in the context it was said.

“I’m hugely disappointed. It’s distressed me even further. I’m looking to see whether there is an opportunity for me to seek a judicial review.”