Slams Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s ‘inexplicable’ comments on migrants
London: Senior British police officer Neil Basu, has slammed Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s “inexplicable” comments on migrants saying that it is “unbelievable” and “horrific”, an IANS report in The Tribune, Chandigarh, says.
Due to retire from the Metropolitan Police force, Basu in an interview to Channel 4 on Wednesday, November 30, also voiced his concerns on racism within the UK police ranks and Home Office.
“I find some of the commentary coming out of the Home Office inexplicable,” Basu, who was also Britain’s former counter-terrorism head, said.
Braverman, forced to resign from her position under former Prime Minister Liz Truss for breaching the ministerial code of conduct, had sparked an outrage by comparing the migrant crisis in the country to an “invasion”.
“It is unbelievable to hear a succession of very powerful politicians talking in a language that my father would have remembered from 1968. It’s horrific,” Basu said, remembering the time when the late Conservative MP Enoch Powell had delivered the ‘rivers of blood’ speech in 1968 against mass immigration into the UK.
“The ‘rivers of blood’ speech happened in the constituency next to where my parents lived and made their life hell. A mixed-race couple walking through the streets in the 1960s, stoned…”
Anil Kanti ‘Neil’ Basu is the son of a Bengali doctor, who migrated from Kolkata in the 1960s, and a Welsh mother. He gave up banking to become a police officer.
In a policing career spanning 30 years, the outgoing Assistant Commissioner spoke about growing up in an “all-white” area.
“I was beaten in the 1970s for being a mixed-race kid in an all-white school in an all-white area. It is personal. I speak about race because I know something about race because I am a 54-year-old mixed-race man,” he told Channel 4.
At one stage in his career, Basu was even tipped for the post of director-general of Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA), equivalent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the US.
But that never happened eventually. He was turned down, reportedly due to honest differences with former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in the past.
Former Home Secretary Priti Patel was also identified as being against him, IANS had reported earlier.
He had openly urged police chiefs in Britain at the time to admit that there is institutional racism in policing in the country.
He had said in an interview that “positive discrimination” should be introduced to boost ethnic officers in the ranks.
“I would surmise that it is because I have been outspoken about issues that do not fit with the current political administration. They are wrong, diversity and inclusion are two of the most important things for policing,” Basu told Channel 4.
“I’ve been the only non white face as a chief officer for a very long time. I don’t think the home office cares about this subject at all,” he said
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