Neil Basu QPM

In the world of policing, Neil Basu stood out. He was Britain’s top south Asian cop, and Basu became a pioneer when he was appointed as the national police lead on counter terrorism – the first person of colour to do that role. As an assistant commissioner in the Metropolitan Police, he held the rank of chief constable.

He argued passionately among his fellow police chiefs that the profession should admit it was institutionally racist. But, as Basu revealed, he was bitterly disappointed when they did not agree, and that hastened his retirement after 30 years as an officer. Even today, he has not given up the fight to persuade those in his former profession to open their eyes to racial bias affecting minority communities.

His brief was one of the toughest in the police, Basu told Pioneers that even though the intelligence service and forces thwarted many terrorist attacks, it haunts him that he was not able to prevent atrocities on his watch. The former head of counter terrorism joined the Met in 1992, and he stayed there, under various roles, until his retirement. Basu was a police liaison during Stephen Lawrence, which found his force institutionally racist over its handling of the investigation into the murder of the black teenager.

Basu said he faced more racism outside the force than inside it. As the son of a mixed-race couple – his Bengali doctor father met his Welsh nurse mother in the early 1960s – he recalled that they would be stoned when they held hands walking through the streets. In 2019, he told MPs he had spent his life dealing with racism.  He made his comments while giving evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee which was examining a controversial proposal from a cross-party group of MPs, that wanted to define Islamophobia as a "type of racism".

Basu remains in great demand as an expert on UK policing.