MPs eject civil servant who failed to answer questions

A SENIOR Whitehall mandarin refused to say whether the UK Border Force budget had been cut – before being ejected from a hearing with MPs for giving “unsatisfactory” answers.

Oliver Robbins was threatened with being held in contempt and repeatedly criticised when he side-stepped a string of questions put to him by the home affairs select committee yesterday.

Mr Robbins, the Home Office second permanent secretary, was asked nine times by Keith Vaz, the committee chairman, whether the borders budget had been finalised, without receiving an answer.

Mr Vaz eventually said: “I’m going to excuse you from this committee because I think your evidence so far has been unsatisfactory.”

Andy Burnham, the shadow home secretary, last month accused the Home Office of hiding £88 million in cuts to the budget amid heightened terror concerns in the wake of the Brussels attacks.

Sir Charles Montgomery, the UK Border Force director general who reports to Mr Robbins, previously told the committee he expected to know his budget by the start of the financial year on April 1.

Mr Robbins said it was “not easy to answer it in a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’”.

Labour MP Mr Vaz threatened to hold the civil servant in contempt and warned him he intended to write to Sir Jeremy Heywood, the Cabinet Secretary, to complain, adding: “It’s totally unsatisfactory.”

Mr Robbins was told to return to the Home Office and find out the answer by 6pm. A spokesman for Mr Vaz later confirmed the deadline had not been met and the chairman would be asking Mr Robbins to appear before the committee again next week.