Pressure was piling on Theresa May over the borders fiasco last
night after she admitted relaxing security checks at all ports over
the summer.
The Home Secretary conceded in an emergency statement to MPs
that she had no idea how many foreign nationals had escaped
biometric checks because the controls were further eased by the UK
Border Agency (UKBA). She acknowledged that ministers had, without
David Cameron's knowledge, decided to run a pilot scheme to gauge
the effect of relaxing the checks on British and European
travellers. She even extended the trial after an initial six-week
period.
A political crisis erupted for Ms May after it emerged that UKBA
managers widened the pilot scheme to cover all foreign arrivals at
British ports over two months. She insisted that ministers knew
nothing of the covert policy until three senior UKBA staff were
suspended last week – an admission that brought charges of
incompetence.
The shadow Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, said Ms May and the
Immigration minister, Damian Green, were "at best were deeply out
of touch, at worst complicit in a series of serious breaches of
border control".
Ms May is battling the worst problem of her 18 months in her
post and the UKBA faces fresh questions over its competence. The
issue of immigration is particularly toxic for a Conservative Home
Secretary as the party has vowed to tighten border controls and
slash numbers of foreign nationals coming to Britain.
Mr Cameron yesterday expressed his full confidence in Ms May and
stayed in the Commons to give her his support as she faced a
torrent of opposition criticism. The furore was triggered by the
suspension of Brodie Clark, the head of the UK border force,
following the disclosure that immigration checks were eased for all
new arrivals to Britain via Heathrow and Calais in order to cut
queues. Under the pilot scheme, controls were relaxed to enable
border officials the discretion to judge when to open the biometric
chip, which contains a second photograph, on the passports of
people from the EU.
Children from the EU with their parents or as part of a school
group would also face looser checks, with those deemed a "credible
risk" being checked against the database of suspected terrorists
and serious criminals.
But the scrutiny was further eased, with adult arrivals not
checked against the database at Calais and the fingerprints of
non-European nationals from countries that require a visa were
stopped. "I did not give my consent or authorisation for any of
these decisions," Mrs May told MPs. "Indeed I told officials
explicitly that the pilot was to go no further than we had
agreed."
However, a leaked memo from the UKBA, written just days after
ministers signed off the pilot scheme, referred to plans to only
question visa-holders "where there is perceived to be a risk". The
significance of the instruction is that only travellers from
outside the European Economic Area are required to carry visas.
In addition, the memo, instructs border staff what steps to take
"if, for whatever reason, it is considered necessary to take
further measures" during the trial period. Last night the Home
Office said ministers had not seen the document and maintained
there were innocent explanations for the controversial pieces of
guidance. It said visa-holders were not always questioned by border
staff and the instruction on "further measures" referred to health
and safety.
Ms May announced that John Vine, the independent chief inspector
of the UKBA, will conduct "a thorough review to find out exactly
what happened across UKBA in terms of the checks, how the chain of
command in border force operates and whether the system needs to be
changed in future".
* MPs are to press for a Commons debate on measures to curb
immigration after an online petition yesterday gained the 100,000
supporters required for consideration. Campaigners secured the
number of signatures on the "No to 70 Million" petition within a
week.
Q&A: Relaxation of border checks
Q: What started this controversy?
A: Brodie Clark, the head of the UK Border Agency,
and two other senior managers were suspended last Thursday when it
emerged that immigration officers were authorised in August to skip
biometric checks on non-European nationals at Heathrow airport and
at Calais.
Q: Why does that matter?
A: It meant that there was no confirmation that
the names of tens of thousands of arrivals matched the information
held about them online. It also meant there was no check against
international watch-lists of terrorists and criminals.
Q: How did the policy of reduced checks
originate?
A: The decision was made in July to scale back
checks for British and European Economic Area (EEA) passport
holders (particularly for children travelling with adults) to help
cut queues at airports. The move was taken on a pilot basis, but
was extended to cover all arrivals.
Q: Who made those decisions?
A The initial decision (for EEA passport holders) was made by
Home Office ministers – Theresa May and Damian Green – although not
relayed to Downing Street. The extension of the scheme to all
passport holders was, according to Ms May, made by Mr Clark and
ministers were not told of the initiative.
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