UK

Suella Braverman's migrants speech like Rivers of Blood, says senior Met officer

Neil Basu says language used by Home Secretary reminded him of Enoch Powell and the abuse his parents suffered in the 60s

By Martin Evans, 

CRIME EDITOR

29 November 2022

 • THE TELEGRAPH

Suella Braverman was criticised for telling the Telegraph her dream was to see migrants deported to Rwanda

CREDIT: PA

Britain’s most senior Asian police officer has compared Suella Braverman’s comments on immigration to Enoch Powell’s infamous Rivers of Blood speech.

Neil Basu, the UK’s former head of counter terrorism, described the Home Secretary’s choice of language on the asylum issue as “inexplicable” and “horrific”.

Ms Braverman came in for criticism when she told the Telegraph she dreamed of sending migrants to Rwanda and also when she described the current crisis as an “invasion”

In an interview ahead of his retirement from the Metropolitan Police, Mr Basu, whose father came to the UK from India in the 1960s, said such language reminded him of the racism his family endured following Powell’s inflammatory speech.

He told Channel 4 News: “I find some of the commentary coming out of the Home Office inexplicable. 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.”

LONG LIVE THE EMPIRE SAYS BRAVERMAN

THE CANNONS OF CHRISTIANITY 

Mr Basu - whose father was a doctor who moved to Britain from Calcutta, and whose mother was a nurse from Wales - grew up in Stafford where he was regularly the target of racist abuse.

He described how after Powell’s speech, his parents had stones thrown at them by racists as they walked down the street.

He said: “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. 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.”

Ms Braverman, whose own parents came to Britain in the 1960s from Mauritius and Kenya, has been criticised for her rhetoric on the migrant crisis, but has expressed her determination to tackle the issue.

On Tuesday, a Home Office spokesman said the Home Secretary was very clear about the need to “manage our borders effectively and have an asylum system that works for those in genuine need”.

Mr Basu said he was happy to describe himself as 'woke'

 CREDIT: PA


Mr Basu was the country’s head of counter terrorism policing between 2018 and 2021 but missed out on becoming Commissioner and also on being appointed head of the National Crime Agency after clashing with No 10 and Priti Patel, the former home secretary.

One flashpoint came when Mr Basu urged the Home Office to consider relaxing the rules on positive discrimination in order to increase the number of black and ethnic minority police officers.

Mr Basu suggested his progress in policing had been blocked by the Government because he had been outspoken on issues of race and diversity.

But he said he was proud to describe himself as “woke”, defining it as "being alert to issues of racial and social injustice".

“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." he said.

“We serve all of the public without fear or favour, regardless of who they look like, not just the people we like.”

Mr Basu said diversity and inclusion were two of the most important things for modern policing adding that there should be “zero tolerance” of prejudice in the Met.

Asked whether thousands of police officers needed to be rooted out of the Met, Mr Basu replied: “Yes, I think that's correct. If you're a police officer watching this and you are - like the vast majority of police officers - a good person who wants to do the right thing, then you have to be the person who doesn't walk by when you see that kind of behaviour.”

Mutiny or Revolution? 

The Consequences of Events in India in 1857

Florian Blackburn

37 Pages

India,

Indian Mutiny,

Consequences of the Indian Mutiny 1857,

Histotiography of events in India 1857

The focus of this project is on both the nature and consequences, for India, of the Indian Mutiny of 1857. Classic British historians have offered a clear simplistic view that events should be classed as a Mutiny. However, I focus on the debate between the Indian historians that emerged in the twentieth century. I conclude that the events of 1857 must be characterised initially as a military Mutiny, but later as a collective conservative rebellion for the protection of religion, and the rejection of British rule. I go on to discuss the short term effects, looking at the social and military reform undertaken by the British, which represents how their attitudes to the culture and native peoples of India was shifted by the uprising against British rule. This shift moves away from legislative reforms imposed from above, to focus on shifting young Indian’s attitudes gradually and naturally, through Victorian style education. Furthermore I discuss the short term reorganisation of the Indian militaries, and how the events in 1857 led to the development of a material race ideology. Lastly, I discuss how the Rebellion, and its consequences led to a national sentiment developing, which leads to the onset of the early Independence Movement.