Former Met Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu: I spent a year in therapy to get over what happened in my career

Full Disclosure with James O'Brien

Global

Society & Culture

4.6 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 23 August 2024

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

"When I signed up to the police my friends said, 'Why on earth are you joining a corrupt and racist organisation?'"

Neil Basu joined the police force as uniformed officer in 1992. He rose through the ranks to become an assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police in 2015, a role he held until 2021. Alongside this, he served as the UK's head of counter terrorism policing and Met assistant commissioner of specialist operations, working closely with MI5. During that time, he led investigations into 12 terror attacks, foiled 29 plots and charged three Russian state assassins in connection with the Salisbury Novichok poisonings.

In this rare and candid conversation, Neil doesn't hold back. He talks about the racism he's faced, the barriers he's had to break down and the tough leadership lessons he's learned throughout his career. But perhaps most powerfully, he explains why he firmly believes the Metropolitan Police is institutionally racist and why police chiefs must acknowledge it and apologise.

This episode is not suitable to those under 18 and contains sensitive topic discussions including racism and violence. If you are affected by anything you hear in this episode and need support, please see the suggested website links below.

HOPE not hate

SARI

Stop Hate UK

Transcript

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0:00.0	Look at him go.
0:01.5	He's a quality striker.
0:02.8	No, not him.
0:03.7	The electrician fixing those lights.
0:05.5	Wow.
0:06.2	Is he?
0:06.9	Yes, he uses QuickBooks to prepare for self-assessment.
0:10.3	This is truly game-changing.
0:12.9	Use QuickBooks year-round to ensure your income tax return is shock-free.
0:17.0	That's how you business differently.
0:18.9	Into its QuickBooks.
0:19.7	This episode contains sensitive topic discussions, including racism and violence.
0:25.9	Listener discretion is advised.
0:29.9	This is a Global Player Original podcast.
0:46.7	Hello and welcome to Full Disclosure, a podcast project conceived to let me spend more time than I'd ever get on the radio with interesting people.
0:55.0	And I suppose funnily enough, Neil Basu, former assistant commissioner in the Metropolitan Police Service, former head of counterterrorism policing in the UK. This is one of those lovely moments where you were on the radio show 10 minutes ago,
0:58.9	and we found it so interesting that we thought we'd get you in for a longer listen.
1:03.9	Well, thank you for that and thank you for inviting me back.
1:06.2	How often when you're... I didn't know I was going to ask you this question when I sat down,
1:10.5	when you are watching or listening to interviews in the media, how often does the professional
1:15.3	interrogator Gene kick in and you start thinking, why aren't they doing this and why aren't they
1:19.5	never going to get the truth out of them if they go down this road?
	...

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