The threats against Meghan Markle were “disgusting” and “very real”, top officer says. Photo / AP
The threats against Meghan Markle were “disgusting” and “very real”, top officer says. Photo / AP
Former counter terror chief Neil Basu has revealed today that “many” credible threats against Meghan Markle were investigated while she was living in the United Kingdom, according to Daily Mail.
Basu, who has resigned after 30 years in his position as the Met’s Assistant Commissioner of Specialist Operations, has revealedthat the threats against Meghan Markle were “disgusting” and “very real”.
When questioned if they were credible, Basu replied: “Absolutely, and 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.”
The ex-counter terror chief said that Markle had received threats on more than one occasion, adding: “We had teams investigating it. People have been prosecuted for those threats.”
The revelation came to light in a heated interview in which Basu also expressed the way in which his forthright views on race had inhibited his rise to head of the National Crime Agency, calling for a crackdown on racist officers.
Assistant Commissioner of Specialist Operations Neil Basu makes a statement to the press outside New Scotland Yard. Photo / Getty Imags
Basu, who was the UK’s most senior ethnic minority police officer, revealed his personal experience of racism in an interview with Cathy Newman from Channel 4, saying that his outspoken views on the problem saw him bump heads with the government.
He claims that this may have been the reason he was not considered for the role as head of the National Crime Agency.
The former top cop argued that racism remained a prevalent issue in the police force, saying that Mark Rowley - the new Metropolitan Police Commissioner - was “doing the right thing” by calling for more powers to fire officers.
Neil Basu expressed that he was proud to be “woke”, telling Newman: “Are you alert to issues of racial and social justice? Yes I am.”
“And if that is the definition of woke, I’ll wear it as a bumper sticker every day of the week.
“And by the way, every serving police officer, let alone a Chief Constable, better believe that too.
“We serve all of the public without fear or favour, regardless of who they look like, not just the people we like.”
Basu also lashed out at Home Secretary Suella Braverman for statements she made concerning her ‘dream’ to send migrants to Rwanda.
“I find some of the commentary coming out of the Home Office inexplicable,” he 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 the 1968. It’s horrific.”
Home Secretary Suella Braverman poses for media outside 10 Downing Street in London. Photo / AP
“I was born in 1968. The ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech happened in the constituency next to where my parents lived and made their life hell. A mixed-race couple walking through the streets in the 1960s. Stoned.”
He added: “I speak about race because I know something about race because I’m a 54-year-old mixed race man.”
