There was something just not quite right about the suspension of the Head of UKBA, Brodie Clark for relaxing border controls. Why would a career Civil Servant defy all his instincts of caution and take unilateral unauthorised action.
The whispering Govt source, usually a SpAd from the HO, told the Telegraph that is exactly what happened. "They broke Ministerial instructions. They had specific Ministerial instrucions not to do what they did."
Now the whistleblowers have emerged to tell various papers the changes were sanctioned by at least Damian Green, the imigration Minister. Green asked for a range of options to be presented to him in July to cope with the huge queues at the borders following stringent cuts in staffing and budgets. The idea that Departmental spending can be slashed without any impact on service standards may have finally reached its nemesis.
Theresa May (for it is she) will be making a statement to the House today and will no doubt bat off these accusations. Unless there is proof of Ministerial authorisation, they will be able to hold their officials up as their human shields.
Yer man, Brodie Clark, is likely to have access to the specific communications which would show where culpabilty lies. But as he is sipping coffee in his conservatory so he cannot show it. In any case there is often a code in these situations where senior officials fall on their swords silently for a quick settlement and a future quango post.
Unless some document with Ministerial paw prints emerges before Ms May's appearance before the HAC on Tuesday the HO Ministers will be home free.
At least this incident may serve to remind them that the claptrap paraded to the media of huge savings from bureaucracy without any effect on services has its limits in reality.
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