‘Disgusting and credible’ plots against Meghan Markle investigated by police
Police have investigated many “disgusting” and “very real” threats to the Duchess of Sussex, the former head of UK counter-terror policing has said.
There has “absolutely” been a genuine threat to Meghan Markle’s life on multiple occasions, and people have been prosecuted as a result, said Neil Basu, the most senior police officer of colour in the country.
“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,” Mr Basu told Channel 4 News, adding: “We had teams of people investigating it.”
In an interview hours before leaving the Metropolitan Police after 30 years in the force, Mr Basu also condemned home secretary Suella Braverman’s “horrific” language around immigration, which revived memories of the violent racism his parents endured in the wake of Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” speech.
“I find some of the commentary coming out of the Home Office inexplicable,” he said, adding: “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.”
Mr Basu recalled his parents being stoned in the streets in the wake of the infamous speech, which Powell gave in “the constituency next to where my parents lived. It “made their life hell”, he said. “A mixed-race couple walking through the streets in the 1960s. Stoned.”
Mr Basu, who served as an assistant commissioner at Scotland Yard, also alleged that Downing Street has “interfered” in him being appointed to certain positions, when asked why he believes he was overlooked for the role as head of the National Crime Agency earlier this year.
“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. “They are wrong. Diversity and inclusion are two of the most important things for policing.”
No 10 said in a statement that the recruitment campaign for the top NCA role was “fair and open”, adding: ““This is a statutory decision for the home secretary, following consultation with the Scottish ministers and the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland, in accordance with the Crime and Courts Act 2013.”
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