Race report consultation like ‘Fawlty Towers’, former Met officer says

Dal Babu ‘disappointed’ he took part ‘because it gives some kind of credibility to it’

A former senior Metropolitan Police officer has expressed regret over taking part in “Fawlty Towers-like” consultations for the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities’ controversial race report.

Speaking with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Dal Babu described the consultations for the landmark report, which concluded that structural racism is not an issue in the UK, as “shambolic”.

Mr Babu, a former chief superintendent who served as one of Britain’s most senior British Asian officers before leaving the force after being rejected for a promotion, said it was clear to him that other participants in the consultations were “generally from the right of politics”.

“I think they were generally from the right of politics. They are not the kind of people I would normally come across as being key individuals in this whole debate about race … about equality,” he said.

“I think they almost had an exam question with the answer already written on it. I feel really personally disappointed that I took part because it gives some kind of credibility to it.”

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From the start, Mr Babu said the consultations were “a Fawlty Towers-like experience”.

“We were told it was going to be ex-BAME police officers. I turned up and it was youth workers … a whole hotchpotch of individuals,” he said. “We raised concerns that we ex-police officers talked about and then they stopped the meeting [and] got rid of some people who were not supposed to be on there.”

When the conversation did eventually start flowing, Mr Babu said there was a “level of cynicism” expressed over what might be said in the report, which he said he now feels has been vindicated.

“The commissioners lacked diversity of thought. They are all of one ilk and I think we have seen that in the report, so we basically said: ‘Look, we have had a lot of these reports.’ And in between they are punctuated with recommendations which never actually see the light of day,” he said.

“So what we have is a continuous system of more and more reports. Every time there is a crisis we have a report, an inquiry,” Mr Babu asserted.

Ultimately, he said he believed the commission “missed an opportunity” to address racial disparities in the UK and instead sought to impose their “political view”.

“We have seen the under-representation of BAME communities in every aspect of British life. I think the commission missed an opportunity,” he said. “They had a political view and I think that is what they have done here.”

His comments come after two experts named as “stakeholders” in the landmark report say they were surprised to be mentioned, with one expert asserting they were “never consulted”.

SI Martin, an author who specialises in black British history and literature, who is named in the report, told The Independent: “I was never consulted, I don’t know what record they have of contacting me.”

The Independent understands the commission will be removing his name from the list, acknowledging its inclusion had been an error.

Meanwhile, Stephen Bourne, a historian of black Britain, told The Independent he had felt “manipulated” when he saw his name appear in the report as having been consulted on the matter.

He said he had been contacted by No 10 adviser Samuel Kasumu, who is reportedly expected to resign from his role, and was invited to a Downing Street roundtable of historians of black Britain in October 2020.

However, he said he did not realise the discussion had been organised in connection with the report.

“Nothing was explained to me,” he said. “I wrote down some of their names of the people there [at the roundtable], and when I googled them and the penny dropped that they were this commission.”

Mr Bourne said he later contacted Downing St and read the “riot act” out to Mr Kasumu, in addition to chastising him for inviting the historian to the roundtable without explaining the context.

The Independent has contacted No 10 for comment.