'Woke' ex-police chief 'rejects Labour offer to apply for £200,000-a-year border force job' leading crackdown on cross-Channel migrant boats
An ex-police chief has reportedly rejected Labour's offer to head up the team that will crackdown on Channel crossings.
Neil Basu, who was head of Counter Terror Policing for three years, had been cited as the frontrunner for the new government's Border Security Command.
Due to his impressive credentials, including advising the new Home Secretary Yvette Cooper on tackling illegal migration when she was in opposition, he had been expected to apply for the £200,000-a-year role.
However, the Times has reported that although he was asked by Labour to apply for the job, he has decided not to take up the offer, as he is 'no civil servant'.
Neil Basu, who was head of Counter Terror Policing for three years, had been cited as the frontrunner for the new government's Border Security Command
Due to his impressive credentials, including advising the new Home Secretary Yvette Cooper on tackling illegal migration when she was in opposition, he had been expected to apply for the £200,000-a-year role
The department said the commander will be a 'leader used to working in complex and challenging environments, for example at senior levels of policing, intelligence or the military' and will bring together the work of the National Crime Agency (NCA), intelligence agencies, police, immigration enforcement and Border Force.
Although Basu has the expertise for the role, he said on Thursday: 'I was a very proud cop and crown servant who was very proud to do a very long and hard job of defending this realm. This job is very important, but I am no civil servant.'
Yet some senior Conservatives were concerned over his potential appointment because of his previous actions.
He once threatened to prosecute journalists for publishing leaked US embassy cables, and in an interview shortly after stepping down as head of counter terrorism, he likened then Home Secretary Suella Braverman to Enoch Powell when she said it was her dream to see asylum-seekers deported to Rwanda.
'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 1968. It's horrific,' he told Channel 4 News.
He also admitted he was proud to be woke, saying: '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.'
Ms Cooper has also ordered an investigation into the latest routes, methods and tactics used by people smuggling gangs across Europe to inform a 'major law enforcement drive' over the coming months
The new border force command is one of Starmer's key manifesto pledges to 'smash the gangs.'
Yvette Cooper is currently working on forming this new group, which once up are running consist of hundreds of new specialist investigators and the use of counter-terror powers to smash the criminal boat gangs.
New laws will be brought in to introduce counter terror-style powers and measures to fight organised immigration crime, officials said.
Ms Cooper has also ordered an investigation into the latest routes, methods and tactics used by people smuggling gangs across Europe to inform a 'major law enforcement drive' over the coming months.
So far this year 13,574 migrants have arrived in the UK after crossing the Channel, according to the latest available Home Office figures.
This is already a record for the first six months of a calendar year.
However, James Cleverly, the now ex-Home Secretary, has questioned why the Labour Government is setting up a new Border Security Command given that a similar unit already exists, led by a former head of the army training college at Sandhurst.
'Has the Small Boats Operational Command been disbanded? Has General Capps been made redundant? Will the SBOC staff be fired and rehired? What is the difference between the two organisations' functions? Or is this just a gimmick?' Mr Cleverly wrote online.
