Scotland yard's senior-most Indian origin officer calls out racism

The senior-most Indian-origin Scotland Yard officer and the United Kingdom's former counter-terrorism chief has spoken out against racism. He said as a schoolboy in the 1970s, he faced racist attacks.

Neil Basu was giving an interview at the end of a three-decade-long career with the Metropolitan Police. The outgoing Assistant Commissioner spoke to Channel 4 News about his concerns about racism in the police department and the Home Office.

He said the Home Office does not care about racism at all. "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." Basu also called the plans to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda "inexplicable".

Speaking about the Home Office being run by Suella Braverman, a woman of Indian heritage, he said: "It is unbelievable to hear a succession of very powerful politicians who look like this, talking in a language that my father would have remembered from 1968, it's horrific."

The UK Home Office responded to his statement and said: "The Home Secretary expects forces to take a zero-tolerance approach to racism within their workplace. But she is also very clear about the need to manage our borders effectively and have an asylum system that works for those in genuine need, as are the British people."

He further said the threat of "extreme right-wing terrorism" in the UK is the "fastest growing" threat that he dealt with as a counter-terrorism officer. "When I started in counter-terrorism in 2015, it was about 6% of our total workload. When I left 15, 16 months ago, it was over 20% of our workload."

The retired officer said he is proud of foiling 29 terrorist plots and added that the new Commissioner Mark Rowley is cracking down on the issue.

Basu recalled several incidents of racist attacks from his early years and said he was beaten for being a mixed-race kid in an all-white school in an all-white area. He added that a mixed-race couple was stoned for walking through the streets in the 1960s. "I speak about race because I know something about race because I am a 54-year-old mixed-race man. This is an under-represented issue."

He also spoke of the racist media coverage Meghan Markle received. The former cop said she faced many "disgusting and very real" threats.

"If you'd seen the stuff that was written and you were receiving it, the kind of rhetoric that's online, if you don't know what I know, you would feel under threat all of the time. We had teams investigating it. People have been prosecuted for those threats," said Basu.