Meet Neil Basu: ‘Proudly woke’ man who will run UK border control in disaster for Britain

The Rwanda plan is dead and buried. Within a week of being in office, Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper have managed to put the small boats crisis on steroids.

The Tory plan, to deport those entering the country illegally to the East African nation, was always going to fail unless accompanied by decisive action to leave the ECHR and repeal the Human Rights Act.

Cowardice from successive ministers meant these steps were never taken.

But at least the plan, with all its faults, recognised that the only way to stop illegal migrants pouring onto Kent beaches was to deter them from doing so. To send them a clear message that if they arrive uninvited on a Kent beach then they will not be allowed to stay.

This Labour government have not joined the dots. To the bleeding-heart liberals now stacked on the frontbenches the problem lies solely with those gang members that are profiting from the migration flow.

Stopping the entry of tens of thousands of illegal migrants is not the concern; “smashing the gangs” is now the only thing that matters to ministers. If reports are to be believed, then poised to lead on this mission is the UK’s former head of counter-terror policing, Neil Basu.

Heading up Labour’s so-called Border Security Command, itself a rehash of previous Tory policies, Basu is to become the point man for tackling the illegal migration invasion.

But does he have what it takes to finally stop the inflow?

A quick glance at his track record would suggest not. As recently as 2022 Basu was launching a phlegm-riddled tirade against then-Home Secretary for voicing her desire to get flights off the ground and illegal migrants on their way to Kigali, describing the rhetoric as “horrific” and akin to Enoch Powell’s “Rivers of Blood” speech.

A year later he was again sticking the knife into Braverman, attacking her reasonable critiques of anti-Israeli protests in central London as somehow giving licence to the far-right. There can be no doubt that Basu has been involved in policing and counter-terror policing for a considerable period of time, and it is clearly this longevity that Labour will point to in order to justify his appointment.

However, there are serious questions about his judgement during these long years. For instance, his decision to drop the term “Islamist terrorism” from official use, and instead opt for the nebulous phrase of “faith-based terrorism” suggests an individual that is unwilling to call a spade a spade.

Similarly, his admittance that he would have “probably” joined in with the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020, in which Union flags adorning the Cenotaph were set alight, the statue of Sir Winston Churchill desecrated, and the Met police degraded into a state of subservience, will hardly fill the British public with confidence.

If he is prepared, for ideological reasons, to turn a blind eye to such a wanton attack on our laws and institutions, then we can hardly expect him to fight tooth to secure our borders and to slam the door shut in the face of migrants looking to break into our country.

Were Basu to be appointed, there would be just one clear conclusion to make: that the Labour Party are more concerned with appearing virtuous and kind-hearted than actually addressing a problem head-on.

After all, Basu has stated that he is proud to be “woke” and made it clear that, for him, the main priority of policing is not the enforcement of laws, nor of keeping the British public safe, but of promoting the agendas of equality and diversity.

This is hardly the kind of stern approach that will be needed to clamp down on one of the biggest crises facing the country. Britain cannot afford to have someone with the temperament of a benignant nursery school supervisor in charge of ending the invasion. The issue is too serious.

Sadly, his appointment will be indicative of the tone shift that will take place under this Labour government. Illegal migrants will no longer be rightly held as unwanted intruders who have broken into our country, but rather passive victims towards whom every act of hospitality and kindness must be extended.

This will only result in one outcome: thousands more making the crossing.

Robert Bates is Research Director at the Centre for Migration Control