Cressida Dick may be gone but will her replacement be even worse? The under-fire Metropolitan police commissioner quit the job on Thursday after five years in the role, meaning that three of the last four Met bosses have now been forced out in disgrace. Dick’s departure has prompted an immediate search for her successor. Unfortunately, one of the very reasons for her survival at the top for so long, was a lack of a viable alternative, with many top cops preferring quieter pastures than London or opting for greater riches in the private security sector.
Perhaps that dearth of talent can be shown in one of the early favourites for the role of Dick’s replacement. Met Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu has featured in much of the commentary around the vacancy, having spent the entirety of his 30-year-long policing career in the Met. Unfortunately, while Britain’s top Asian officer no doubt has many qualities, he has demonstrated a somewhat alarming disdain for the Fourth Estate throughout his time in office.
As head of Operations Weeting, Elveden and Tuleta, Basu oversaw three inquiries into phone hacking, computer hacking and alleged payments to police officers by newspapers. All three came to a total bill of around £19.5million and were criticised on the grounds of cost and for criminalising journalists. Subsequently in July 2019, it was Basu who threatened to prosecute a young journalist working for the Mail on Sunday after the newspaper published leaked diplomatic cables which led to the resignation of Kim Darroch, the British Ambassador to Washington.
Darroch’s derisory comments about the Trump administration were leaked to Steven Edginton, a 19-year-old freelancer. His subsequent story prompted Basu to author an incendiary statement claiming that the publication of the leaked communications could be a criminal matter; comments which were roundly condemned across the political spectrum. Boris Johnson, then a contender for Tory leader, said that any prosecution ‘would amount to an infringement on press freedom and have a
chilling effect on public debate’ while his rival George Osborne simply described Basu’s intervention as ‘very stupid
and ill-advised.’
The news therefore, that Basu could be in line for the Met’s top job has not gone down well with many of Fleet Street’s finest. Edginton, who is now 21 and working for the Telegraph told Mr S that if Londoners ‘value freedom of the press and are sick and tired of woke police officers’ then Neil Basu would be ‘your worst nightmare as Met Chief.’ Edginton said that after the officer threatened action against him and the paper:
Basu refused to back down from his threats when he gave a speech a few months later to the Society of Editors saying if he had a chance to repeat his actions he would have done so. Basu’s Counter-Terrorism unit launched a completely disproportional and frankly political investigation into the Kim Darroch leaks and, after more than two years, have failed to bring any charges. Basu’s open attempts to prevent journalists from doing their jobs should be enough to rule him out from any further promotion.
Let’s remember too of course that Basu has also made somewhat, er, undiplomatic comments about Boris Johnson himself, having claimed the Prime Minister would be barred from joining the police because of his remarks describing black people as ‘piccaninnies’ and comparing Muslim women to ‘letterboxes.’ He also publicly attacked a ‘No Deal Brexit’ on the grounds that it would make the country ‘less safe.’
Given that the staunch Brexiteer and current Home Secretary Priti Patel gets to make the final call on the Met appointment, Steerpike suspects Basu’s comments could come back to haunt him.
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