The former head of UK counter-terror policing has called Suella Braverman’s language on migrants “inexplicable” and compared it to Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” speech.
Metropolitan Police assistant commissioner Neil Basu, who is the country’s most senior non-white police officer, said the racist and anti-immigration address in 1968 had made his parents’ lives “hell” as a mixed-race couple.
In an interview with Channel 4 News before his departure from Scotland Yard, he was asked about Ms Braverman’s statement that sending asylum seekers to Rwanda was her “dream”.
“I find some of the commentary coming out of the Home Office inexplicable,” Mr Basu said.
“It is unbelievable to hear a succession of very powerful politicians who look like this talking in language that my father would have remembered from 1968. It’s horrific.”
The senior police officer added: “I was born in 1968. The ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech happened on the constituency next to where my parents lived and made their life hell.”
Ms Braverman called small boat crossings by asylum seekers in the English Channel an “invasion” in parliament on 31 October, the day after a far-right terrorist firebombed a reception centre in Dover.
“The British people deserve to know which party is serious about stopping the invasion on our southern coast,” the home secretary said.
“Illegal migration is out of control, and too many people are more interested in playing political parlour games and covering up the truth than solving the problem.”
Small boat crossings have become a focus for British far-right groups, who vocally backed Ms Braverman’s description of an “invasion”.
Counter-terror police have been monitoring threats towards migrant reception centres and hotels, following a spate of online praise for Dover firebomber Andrew Leak and calls for more attacks.
Mr Basu was the head of UK counter-terrorism policing between March 2018 and September 2021.
He applied to become director-general of the National Crime Agency (NCA), reaching the final stage before the recruitment process was stopped and restarted by the government.
Downing Street was reported to have intervened in the appointment amid claims that Boris Johnson opposed Mr Basu because he said the former prime minister would have been barred from joining the Metropolitan Police over his 2019 comments on Muslim women and Black people.
Asked why he believes he was not appointed to lead the NCA, Mr Basu said: “I do know that Number 10 has previously interfered in me being appointed to positions. And the reason for that, I have not been told. 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.”
He said there must be “zero tolerance” for prejudiced and corrupt police officers, and that officers should remember they “serve all of the public without fear or favour, regardless of who they look like, not just the people we like”.
Mr Basu said that if “woke” meant being alert to issues of racial and social justice, he would “wear it as a bumper sticker every day of the week”.
The Home Office said its efforts to recruit 20,000 extra police officers meant there were record numbers of Black and ethnic minority constables in post, and that it was supporting change within policing.
A spokesperson added: “The home secretary expects forces to take a zero tolerance approach to racism within their workplace.
“But the Home Secretary 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.”
