UK’s Indian-origin anti-terror police chief to seek explanation for missed promotion

Scotland Yard’s Indian-origin Head of Counter-Terrorism Policing, Neil Basu is disappointed with the process for a new appointment has been handled and plans to seek an explanation from the UK Home Office.

Scotland Yard’s Indian-origin Head of Counter-Terrorism Policing, Neil Basu, said he is “disappointed” with the way the process for a new appointment which involved a promotion has been handled and plans to seek an explanation from the UK Home Office, a UK media report has claimed.

Basu, a Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner and the country’s senior-most non-white officer, was in the running to lead the National Crime Agency (NCA) often referred to as the UK’s version of the American Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). According to ‘The Sunday Times’, Basu had been narrowed down as one of the final two candidates until Downing Street’s preference for former Scotland Yard chief Lord Bernard Hogan-Howe emerged and applications were reopened.

“I am disappointed in the way the process has concluded and will not be applying again,” Basu told the newspaper.

“I will be seeking an explanation from the Home Office,” the 53-year-old said.

The newspaper said Basu is understood to be consulting lawyers and has served notice on the Home Office that he intends to lodge a formal complaint.

Privately, he is reportedly furious to miss out on the GBP 223,000-a-year job and his supporters suspect it may be linked to his outspoken views on race.

Last week, on the second anniversary of the murder of George Floyd in the US which triggered the worldwide Black Lives Matter movement, Basu wrote an article in which he said British policing had to accept that it is “institutionally racist” and also called for positive discrimination to boost the number of black and Asian officers.