NEIL BASU remains the most senior police officer in the country from an ethnic minority background. As the GG2 2022 Power List goes to press, Cressida Dick’s successor as Metropolitan Police Commissioner has yet to be announced, but several newspapers included Basu’s name among the “runners and riders” for the top job.

Whether he gets the post or not, Basu certainly made his presence felt as assistant commissioner in the Metropolitan Police in charge of specialist operations. He has also been the “National Police Chiefs Council lead for counter terrorism policing”. In other words, his job has been to work closely with MI5 in keeping the nation safe.

Since July 5, 2021, assistant commissioner Matt Jukes has taken his place at Scotland Yard while Basu has been on secondment leading the “Strategic Command Course” at the College of Policing and training the most senior police officers of the future. Basu has just completed this stint and it remains to be seen who takes over as the new director general of the National Crime Agency.

Over the last few years, Basu has been a familiar figure on television, reassuring the public every time there was a terrorist outrage.

In the last five years, there have been at least seven terror attacks, such as the ones at London Bridge, Westminster and Manchester Arena. On the face of it, it looks as though things have been quiet during the pandemic but Basu reveals nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, police have foiled 27 serious attacks.

“My utopia is never to have to be on television again,” he says. “The goal should be zero attacks. Every attack is an intelligence failure by definition. It might just have been unstoppable, a whole series of events that are unstoppable. But I will always