His plain-speaking in the past may have rubbed decision-makers Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel the wrong way
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Neil Basu, an Indian-origin British police officer, could become the next London Metropolitan Police Commissioner or chief of the hallowed Scotland Yard, an IANS report in The Tribune, Chandigarh, says.
But his plain-speaking in the past may have rubbed decision-makers Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Home Secretary Priti Patel the wrong way.
The London police commissioner’s post fell vacant on Thursday, February 10, after the incumbent Cressida Dick, the first woman to occupy the position, resigned after London Mayor Sadiq Khan lost confidence in her.
Son of an Indian doctor from Kolkata and a Welsh mother, Anil Kanti ‘Neil’ Basu, 53, assistant commissioner rank, is an economics graduate from Nottingham University. He joined the Met Police in 1992, was head of counter-terrorism and specialist operations, before becoming director of the College of Policing.
The widely read Mail on Sunday in a profile of him said he is “well-liked within the force and by intelligence officials at MI5 (Britain’s internal intelligence gathering body)”.
The Guardian wrote: “He is widely seen as capable, and is mostly well thought of.’ If appointed, he will be the first ethnic minority person to become London’s police commissioner, one of the most coveted jobs in policing in the world.”
Son of an Indian doctor from Kolkata and a Welsh mother, Anil Kanti ‘Neil’ Basu, 53, assistant commissioner rank, is an economics graduate from Nottingham University. He joined the Met Police in 1992, was head of counter-terrorism and specialist operations, before becoming director of the College of Policing.
According to The Times, Basu last year had also clashed with Patel after he urged the home office in Britain to introduce positive discrimination to make the police more diverse.
Equality laws in the UK may need to be changed if the police force is to boost ethnic minority recruits, he had then said.
On paper, the Home Secretary and London Mayor choose by consensus the city’s police commissioner.
In practice, Patel is unlikely to take a decision without consulting Johnson.
Ed Davey, leader of the Liberal Democrats, has called on Johnson to “publicly recuse” himself from selecting Dick’s successor, because the prime minister is being investigated by the force for allegedly violating Covid-19 lockdown laws.
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