Basu ends police career
IT’S A sad day for policing and especially for the Metropolitan Police.
Neil Basu, who at 54 is a year younger than Sajid Javid, has announced he is leaving the police force after 30 years, with a valedictory interview with Channel 4.
Neil, whom I have met on several occasions over the past few years, was at one stage tipped to be promoted from assistant commissioner to commissioner at the Met.
That was blocked by Boris Johnson as prime minister and his home secretary Priti Patel. Although Neil was one of two candidates shortlisted to be director-general of the National Crime Agency, he was blocked from getting that job as well.
It is a great pity that someone with his experience of dealing with counter-terrorism is being lost to the police. It seems that sooner or later, every senior nonwhite officer is forced out of law enforcement.
“I’ve been the only nonwhite face as a chief officer for a very long time. I don’t think the Home Office cares about this subject at all,” observed Neil.
His father, Pankaj Kumar Basu, was a Bengali doctor who came from Calcutta (now Kolkata); his mother, Enid Roberts, is from Wales. In 1960s Britain, they were attacked if they held hands in public.
He thinks his outspoken views on race may not have gone down well with the government. “I know Number 10 has previously interfered in me being appointed to positions and the reason for that I have not been told,” he said. “I would surmise – and people who know me surmise – that it is because I’ve 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.”