It was a case of mistaken identity which the National Black Police Association will not repeat in a hurry.

Delegates attending the opening day of the organisation’s national conference were expecting a keynote speech from David Davis, the ex-shadow Home Secretary and champion of civil liberties. Their star attraction duly took to the stage, but turned out to be the wrong Conservative backbench MP.

Even more unexpected was the speech he delivered, which provoked widespread outrage, heckling, slow handclapping and a protest walkout.

Instead of David Davis, the event’s organisers had somehow invited David Davies, the little-known Tory member for Monmouth who happens to sit on the Commons home affairs select committee.

Mass confusion and no little embarrassment in the ranks turned to astonishment when the 38-year-old MP, elected to Westminster in 2005, began to speak.

Mr Davies, already developing a reputation for his hang ’em and flog ’em approach to law and order, had decided to accuse the National Black Police Association (NBPA) of being racist for denying membership to white officers.

“To me, it is a shame that full membership of the BPA is open only to those of black, Asian or Middle Eastern origin,” he began.

“Tackling racism and unfair treatment of ethnic minorities is something which is taken seriously by members of every race in the police force and yet the clear implication is that white people do not share this concern.

“It could be argued that this policy is explicitly racist, in that it bars white people, and implicitly racist in suggesting that white people care less about racism than people of black, Middle Eastern, Asian or African origin.” Warming to his theme, Mr Davies suggested that the NBPA’s membership policy “would be unacceptable and probably illegal in virtually any other organisation in this country”.

The MP, who serves as a special constable in London, proceeded to offer the association some helpful advice on taking alleged cases of racial discrimination to employment tribunals.

It would be a good idea, he suggested, to “try to establish the veracity of claims being made by the applicant before taking matters to the courts”.

“It is human nature that if we are denied a promotion, we find it easier to convince ourselves and others that our race, religion, sex or sexual orientation is to blame, rather than our abilities.” The most senior Muslim police officer in England, Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Tarique Ghaffur, is currently pursuing a race discrimination case against the force over, among other issues, its failure to promote him.

He had been due to attend yesterday’s conference but was unavoidably detained elsewhere.

Mr Ghaffur was thus denied Mr Davies’s tip that “an organisation which brings forward unfounded or vexatious claims risks its own reputation and its ability to help people who genuinely need it”.

However, Ali Dizaei, the Met Commander - currently suspended over misconduct allegations - who is also the BNPA president, was present in the conference hall at York Racecourse to hear Mr Davies’s final words of wisdom.

They focused on the Metropolitan Black Police Association’s recent decision, in response to Mr Dizaei’s suspension, to demand that all potential ethnic minority recruits should boycott the force.

“As a result... the BPA has become the only publicly-funded organisation to say that the police should be for whites only.” Choosing his words carefully, an NBPA spokesman later described Mr Davies’s contribution as “thought-provoking”. Association members were, he said, “mature enough to listen to opinions that aren’t shared by us”.

Some delegates were less sanguine. When Mr Davies faced a question and answer session during the afternoon, he was slow handclapped and half a dozen NBPA members walked out of the hall in protest.

Dave Macfarlane, general secretary of the NBPA’s London branch, stood up to accuse the MP of being “like the BNP in the 1980s”.

“I’m sick and tired of white people coming here to insult us,” he said.

Another delegate, Vinny Tomlinson, from Merseyside, suggested that Mr Davies had displayed an astonishing “ignorance and immaturity in his lack of understanding of racial issues”.

“You invited me to come here. If you wanted someone just to turn up and give the same old speech, you should have picked somebody else,” was the MP’s response.

Next year, they will.

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