Neil Basu, the UK’s former head of counter-terrorism, sat down for an interview with UK’s Channel 4 News. He discussed keeping the royal family safe and confirmed that there had been many threats against Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s lives while they were living in the UK. Here’s what Basu had to say about the “disgusting” and “very real” threats made to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.
Neil Basu says there have been “disgusting” and “very real” threats against Meghan and Harry
Channel 4 News described Basu as holding “one of the most challenging jobs in the country”. According to the station, 600 terrorists were convicted during his tenure. Basu was also responsible for protecting the royal family. Asked how he would describe the threats against Meghan and Harry, Basu says they are “disgusting and very real”.
“I’ve spoken publicly for many years about the threat of far-right terrorism in this country,” Basu says during his interview with Channel 4. “I’ve often been misquoted as taking my eye off the ball, as if I think that was the biggest threat. I never called it the biggest threat, but it was the fastest growing.”
Basu says threats against Meghan and Harry rose from around 6 per cent of the department’s total workload in 2015 to more than 20 per cent by the time he resigned just over a year ago.
Threats against Meghan and Harry have been investigated and in some cases prosecuted
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Basu says “serious, credible threats” have been made against Meghan, which have come from the far right. “If you’d seen the things that were written and you’d get them, the kind of rhetoric that’s online, if you don’t know what they know, you’d feel threatened all the time,” says Basu.
Basu went on to say that there were people on his team investigating threats to Meghan’s life. “We’ve had people investigating, people have been prosecuted for these things.”
Besides protecting the royal family, Basu focused on protecting the country from terrorism. Asked about his time in the department and whether he ever felt “guilty” about the criminals who got away, Basu says he did. “Do I feel an overwhelming sense of guilt? Yes,” says Basu. “My job comes with a huge job description.”
Basu says he can sum up his job in one sentence: “Your job is to work with MI5 and stop terrorist attacks in this country.” Basu admits that some have lost their lives on his watch and thinks about it daily.
Meghan Markle has more “power” in the United States, says expert
Meghan had a tough time in the UK, but now that she’s in the US, she can relax a bit. Body language expert Judi James says Meghan has more “power” in the US than in the UK.
“The sky’s the limit for Meghan in the US, a country where a reality TV star was recently in the White House,” James tells Express. This is most likely a reference to apprentice star Omarosa Manigault Newman, who served in the Trump administration. “It’s a less power-cynical country where she and Harry can be admired and even adored without any of the restrictions that celebrity status would have on one’s career in the UK,” adds James.
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