James Cleverly sacked me as borders inspector. He should focus on a migrant strategy gone awry
This month I was sacked from my job as the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration. I have not been replaced. As things stand, we do not have an independent chief inspector of borders and immigration. That has profound consequences on oversight of the government’s immigration policies, and far-reaching implications for accountability.
First, you should know that there are 15 outstanding unpublished reports for which that inspector has responsibility, on subjects as varied as deprivation of citizenship and unaccompanied asylum-seeking children housed in hotels. These reports stretch back as far as April 2023. You, the public, should have seen them. Delays in publishing will mean that the Home Office will claim that matters have moved on. While the reports will be published eventually, there will be no one to highlight key recommendations or provide a personal assessment to complement the evidence base of the reports.
Second, a series of continuing inspections will remain incomplete, including those of the contingency asylum accommodation that includes the Bibby Stockholm, asylum hotels and large sites such as MDP Wethersfield. With no independent chief inspector to publish the reports, and my ability to comment gagged by the continued binding terms of my contract, these critical areas of inspection remain open, unsatisfied and unresolved. Since the reports will not be sent to the home secretary, he cannot begin to direct his staff to address the issues that they highlight. Additionally, this work includes the report commissioned in 2022 into conditions in Rwanda.
Finally, and perhaps most concerningly, with no chief inspector, work to shape the remainder of the inspection programme cannot now take place. Until a new chief inspector is appointed, there will be less statutory scrutiny to assure the public that the Home Office is doing its job. It means sensitive and controversial inspection work cannot begin, including into immigration detention, small boats arrivals and the age assessment process. Also, there will be no work commissioned to provide scrutiny, at this critical time, of new material produced by the Home Office in relation to Rwanda.
Against this backdrop, it should come as no surprise that I chose to speak out about the problems with general aviation checks at London City airport. After requesting an urgent meeting with ministers and having received little interest from senior officials in the Home Office, I was left with little choice but to act in the public interest and bring the matter to wider attention via a national newspaper.
The information I exposed was only a fraction of what is contained in the final report sent to the home secretary, and while some of that information might be redacted, nothing that I put into the public domain strays even close to the national security or individual safety clauses in the Nationality and Borders Act.
I dearly hope that because of my actions ministers are now assuring themselves in the areas that I have exposed. Sadly, without the independent scrutiny of a chief inspector, minsters will depend on the judgment of senior officials who in the past failed to expose the security risks in the small boats response at Tug Haven in Dover in 2022, or the appalling conditions at Manston detention centre, Kent, later that year.
I was warned about the culture of the Home Office before I assumed my appointment, but I never expected to be dismissed in such an offhand manner. Tragically, I had no chance to inform my team, and they found out about my sacking in the media. This is desperately poor leadership, and sadly exemplifies all that is bad about the Home Office.
Even though I was sacked by them, I wish the new ministerial team good luck as they bed into the department. I implore them to look over the heads of their officials and find out what is really happening on the ground; the security of our country and confidence of the public demands it.
I am confident that James Cleverly will soon get the measure of his senior team, and while he will understandably be defending the Home Office in public, he will be gripping his folk and shaking things up in private. I am only sorry that I will not be there to help him in his task.
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