James Cleverly has sensationally sacked the head of the borders watchdog amid a row over a lack of security checks on flights to the UK.
David Neal, the Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration, warned ‘high-risk’ private and charter aircrafts are landing without thorough checks.
He warned “this is a scandal and incredibly dangerous for this country’s border security.” But Mr Neal was sacked on Tuesday night after he “lost the confidence” of Home Secretary James Cleverly.
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 planned recruitment process for the next Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration is in progress.”
Immigration minister Tom Pursglove disputed Mr Neal’s warnings over UK Border Force failing to check the occupants of hundreds of private jets arriving at London City airport.
Mr Neal claimed only 144 of the 687 high-risk flights were checked last year.
He also alleged no passport checks were carried out on 543 flights landing at London City Airport.
The rest of the flights – 618 – were categorised as low-risk. Border Force is supposed to check 30 per cent of passengers on such flights.
But Mr Neal alleged just 9.7 of those coming in to London City Airport were examined.
Responding to an urgent question from Labour in the Commons on Tuesday, Mr Pursglove, who is the Home Office’s minister for legal migration, said: “When it comes to the questions that she raises around these flights at London City airport and the information that has been put in the public domain, the Home Office categorically rejects these claims by David Neal.”
Mr Pursglove insisted Border Force performed “checks on 100% of scheduled passengers arriving in the UK and risk-based intelligence-led checks on general aviation”, adding: “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.
“We are urgently investigating this breach of confidential information in full in the normal way.”
The immigration minister also said Mr Neal’s report was submitted to the Home Office last week and underwent fact checking as was “standard practice”, adding: “Mr Neal was made aware of a specific issue in the recording of data at London City airport which meant that a large proportion of flights recorded as high-risk should have been reclassified as low-risk, and it’s disappointing that he’s chosen to put misleading data into the public domain.”