National interest

This is the public’s perception of the biggest failure of immigration policy to beset this Government, and Home Secretary Theresa May’s response needs to be far more robust.

Blaming the mess left by the last Labour administration will not suffice – procedures were further relaxed this summer on her watch, ostensibly to reduce queues at Heathrow Airport. This raises another question: if queues were so long, why did no one, either at the UK Border Agency or Home Office, look at increasing staff numbers to ensure that there was no possibility, however remote, of national security being compromised?

In hindsight, it makes the decision to cut passport staff even more perverse, especially as Mrs May could not adequately explain how many people passed through Heathrow without being subjected to full biometric checks. Corner cutting is indefensible. Mrs May says the decision was taken without Ministerial authority and that the head of the UKBA, Brodie Clark, has been suspended. That said, the Home Secretary did acknowledge that she had authorised a pilot scheme that might have speeded up some passport checks, and questions persist about the Home Office’s chain of command when it comes to operational issues. This specific failing needs to be a key plank of UKBA chief inspector John Vine’s inquiry.

From David Cameron’s perspective, the timing could not have been more unfortunate. The Home Secretary’s inquisition by MPs came immediately after the Premier had updated the Commons on the eurozone financial crisis. With Greece still in turmoil, the confluence of the two most toxic issues in politics – Europe and immigration – could cause untold damage to Mr Cameron’s government unless he can demonstrate, quickly, that the national interest is being put first at all times.