Smuggling gangs should not be deciding who gets to live in Britain

These immigrants’ treacherous journeys are facilitated by criminal smugglers, getting rich off the back of human misery

Examples of hubristic civil servants casually ignoring an elected government are hardly a new phenomena. In my early days as a civil servant in the Thatcher Government, I was on the committee dealing with the privatisation of the Royal Ordnance Factories. After many months of fortnightly meetings, we had made absolutely no progress – until, bizarrely, we were rescued by the Falklands War.

After the Falklands, the dynamics on the committee suddenly changed, and we completed the privatisation process in a matter of weeks. It was explained to me that before the war, civil servants deliberately held up the process because they could not see Thatcher being re-elected. The simple fact that privatising the Royal Ordnance Factories was the policy of the elected government did not seem to matter.

More than 30 years later, when our present Home Secretary came into office, we heard within weeks that civil servants were finding the situation difficult. They didn’t admit to having a problem with her policies, of course. It was simply Patel’s character that was proving tricky. I smiled inwardly at the thought of the trauma the Department must be going through being given policies to execute, rather than doing what they pleased.

But there is a serious side to this story. Later this year, very important legislation will be going to the House that will require, should it pass, both a clear and accurate implementation process and enthusiastic backing from the Home Office.

There is the Harms Bill, due in the autumn – Britain’s big opportunity to tackle the sickness that social media has wrought on our society.

And before that, in a matter of weeks, there is the Borders Bill: the biggest shake-up of immigration rules for decades.

We are all moved by the sight of immigrants, some young, crossing the Channel in a rubber dinghy in the hope of a new start. But there is a darker subtext to what we see on our TVs: these treacherous journeys are facilitated by criminal smuggling gangs, getting rich off the back of human misery.

This fact doesn’t seem to bother a few left-wing human rights lawyers, who encourage these criminals by helping migrants who’ve gained access to the UK illegally appeal against deportation. But it doesn’t sit well with those of us who believe that decisions about who should be admitted to our country should be made by our authorities, not by smuggling gangs.

Priti Patel gets this. Which is why her Sovereign Borders Bill is designed to stop these gangs in their tracks by creating a legal assumption that those who enter Britain illegally will not be granted asylum. It would ensure that those who are given refuge in the UK are the people who need it the most, not simply the ones who can afford to pay off criminals.

Britain has made it clear, via both a referendum and an election, that we want control of our borders.

The Bill coming before the House will give us just that. Let us ensure that it survives its long journey through Parliament and the Home Office intact.