PC Phil Neilson, a constable with the West End team, was initially wary of sharing his views with the undercover reporter. Only half joking, PC Neilson asked the reporter if he was a member of the Met’s Directorate of Professional Standards.
Two weeks later, PC Neilson and Rory met again at the pub, where the constable described how he did not mind Ukrainian people fleeing to the UK from the war. But he had an entirely different view of people arriving from the Middle East. “They’re just scum,” he said, on his second pint, claiming that it was “an invasion”.
“God, we’d so lose our jobs right now,” PC Neilson added.
Over the course of the evening and as PC Neilson drank more, his views remained consistent, but he expressed them in more extreme ways – and even violent ones.
He said Algerians were “scum” and “cunts”, Somalians were “scum” and “fucking ugly”, adding: “I think any foreign person is the worst to deal with.”
A couple of drinks later, PC Neilson shared his views on Islam. “I’ve seen too many Islamics committing crimes. Their way of life is not the correct way of life,” he said.
“You do find that the ones that are causing the most crime are Muslim.”
Police standards also require officers not to discriminate unlawfully or unfairly. The Home Office and police do not publish statistics on general arrest rates by religious communities.
