May denies responsibility for lax passport controls
By Alex Stevenson Follow @alex__stevenson
Relaxed passport checks this summer took place without ministerial sanction, Theresa May has claimed.
The loosened border controls were put in place this summer in a bid to reduce queuing times at UK border entry points manned by under-staffed officials.
Biometric data was not checked, meaning tens of thousands of illegal immigrants – as well as terror suspects – could have been permitted entry into the UK.
"I am very happy to stand here and take responsibility for the decisions I have taken," Ms May told MPs, before explaining that the key decision was not made by her.
The home secretary told MPs she had allowed the UK Border Agency (UKBA) to conduct a limited pilot scheme allowing border officials to drop down to a system of 'intelligence-led' checks. Illegal immigrant detections increased by ten per cent on last year's figures, she said.
She added: "We've since discovered [border force chief] Bodie Clark authorised wider checks without ministerial sanctions."
Mr Clark was suspended on Friday, after biometric checks abandoned on regular basis without ministerial approval.
"I did not give my consent or authorisation for any of these decisions – indeed I told officials explicitly that the pilot was not to go further," Ms May added.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper wrote to the home secretary demanding an inquiry yesterday.
A probe to investigate the reduced border checks will now be conducted by the chief inspector, who will report by the end of January.
Ms Cooper told MPs that "the shredders are on and there is a ban on internal emails" at UKBA, however.
"The public are understandably appalled and shocked at the reports of serious security and immigration lapses by the UK Border Agency over this summer," she wrote yesterday.
"This is the most serious and pressing of a catalogue of failures on immigration and border enforcement over the last 18 months."
Today in the Commons she expressed concern that Ms May did not know how many people had been let in without authorisation, pointing out that both Tory and Labour ministers had committed to the rollout of the e-borders scheme "so that proper screening could be available for everyone".
Union chiefs have blamed spending cuts for the border problems and claimed their opposition to staff reductions had been stifled by UKBA's "culture of no dissent".
"We would welcome a wide-ranging inquiry, not just into the specific issues that have led to these suspensions, but also into the way UKBA as a whole is being run," general secretary Mark Serwotka said.
"It should now be obvious to everyone that the government needs to put an immediate stop to the cuts in UKBA and invest in staff and resources to ensure this pattern is not simply repeated."
He pointed to Friday's report from MPs on the home affairs committee criticising the growing backlog of lost applicants.
It found that 18,000 cases are still awaiting a final decision, despite being on the UKBA's books for five years, and complained about 350 foreign national prisoners who are yet to be deported from the UK.
Shadow immigration minister Chris Bryant told MPs that the UKBA was making 886 job cuts to the frontline border staff in the current financial year and 1,552 in the period before the next general election.
He accused immigration minister Damian Green of "cutting corners" with national security and said that non-EU nationals had been "waltzing into the country without so much as a by-your-leave".
Mr Green replied: "It's the way we use people that makes borders more secure… nobody's been waved through."
