By Ben Kerrigan-
Britain’s borders watchdog was sacked in a impulsively orchestrated Zoom call, after the Home Secretary lost confidence in him.
David Neal, the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, was told by a top civil servant on Tuesday that James Cleverly was terminating his job with immediate effect.
Mr Neal (pictured) rocked the boat when he said that the alleged lack of boarder checks meant criminals, illegal immigrants, trafficking victims and extremists may have entered the UK without undergoing scrutiny by the authorities.
Neal, who heads one of several independent watchdog organisations that monitor and report on the performance of government departments, had been due to step down next month.
The Home Office said Neal, a former police officer and soldier who commanded the 1st Military Police Brigade from 2016 until 2019, had “breached the terms of appointment”.
Shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, reacted to the news saying: “This is total Tory chaos on borders and immigration.
A number of Conservative home secretaries have sought to evade uncomfortable truths revealed by the chief inspector about our broken borders, and shockingly they are still sitting on 15 unpublished reports – stretching back to April last year. The home secretary must now publish those reports in full.
‘The Conservatives have lost control of our borders, are seeking to hide the truth, and are putting border security at risk,” she said.
Border Force officers are supposed to check 100% of general aviation flights which they have classified as “high risk”.
Yet, inspectors found last year that just 21% were inspected by immigration officers at London City airport, Neal claimed.
Immigration minister Tom Pursglove told the Commons the Home Office “categorically rejects” Neal’s claims.
“It’s deeply disturbing that information which has no basis in fact was leaked by the independent chief inspector to a national newspaper before the Home Office had the chance to respond,” the minister told MPs. “We are urgently investigating this breach of confidential information in full in the normal way.”
Neal’s close associates have said he had raised on several occasions the government’s failure to publish 15 reports that uncovered problems within the borders and immigration system dating back to last April.
These included inquiries that could be politically explosive, including into unaccompanied children being housed in hotels and illegal working enforcement.
Civil servants have also been accused of delaying investigations into the government’s plans to process asylum claims in Rwanda.
Other unpublished reports, which were supposed to be released as long ago as last June, include examinations of ePassport gate inspections; Border Force parcel operations; the Border Force’s firearms procedures; illegal working enforcement; asylum accommodation; immigration enforcement; and the processing of migrants arriving by small boats.
Neil graduated in 1994 from the Sandhurst military academy, and was seen on TV screens over Christmas captaining Bangor on University Challenge.
Neal told the Times that an inquiry into caseworker visas found that the Home Office had issued 275 visas to a care home that did not exist and 1,234 to a company that stated it had only four staff when given a licence to operate.
A Home Office spokesperson said: “We have terminated the appointment of David Neal, the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, after he breached the terms of appointment and lost the confidence of the home secretary.”
The recruitment process to replace him was “in progress”, they added.
Many more critics are expected to come out attacking the Home Secretary’s decision as one punishing Mr Neil for expressing free speech in exposing the state of affairs in government.
The UK government was embarrassed by the leak, though more serious questions is why those failings exposed were not prevented.