The
Independent London, Thursday, April 1, 2004 Minister quits
over immigration row HOME Office minister Beverley
Hughes has resigned because she misled
Parliament over the row about her handling of
eastern European immigration, Downing Street said
today. David
Irving comments: WELL, NOW, let's see, which other
minister has deliberately misled
Parliament in recent memory, and should
suuffer the consequences? Hewn in letters
of MGM-granite, the phrase "weapons of
mass destruction" trips inexorably into
view. At least no lives were
lost or taken on account of Ms Hughes'
stupid deception. See my earlier comments in AR-Online. | The Prime Minister's official spokesman said Ms
Hughes quit after it had become clear she had given
a "misleading impression - albeit unwittingly" to
MPs.The news emerged less
than two hours before the Prime Minister was due
to face the press at his monthly news
conference. Ms Hughes has been embroiled in a scandal
centred on allegations that the Home Office
"rubber-stamped" immigration applications from
eastern Europe despite warnings from embassies that
many were based on bogus documents. The issue erupted into a full-blown political
storm at Prime Minister's Questions in the Commons
yesterday, when Conservative leader Michael
Howard accused the Government of cutting asylum
figures by ordering officials to wave through other
applications based on forged papers. THE civil servant whose revelations first
sparked the row was today appearing before a Home
Office disciplinary hearing. Steve Moxon was expected to be quizzed
over his disclosure to a newspaper that key checks
were being waived for visa applicants from
countries due to join the EU on May 1. Mr Moxon was suspended from his post at the
Sheffield office of the Immigration and Nationality
Directorate after he exposed details of the scheme,
codenamed Operation Brace, to a newspaper. Further disclosures came from the British consul
in the Romanian capital Bucharest, James
Cameron, who said visas were being issued on
the basis of plainly-forged documents claiming
applicants wanted to set up in business. Mr Cameron, too, has been suspended and senior
immigration service manager Ken Sutton has
been ordered by Mr Blair to investigate the
charges. It has also emerged that the Foreign Office
complained nearly two years ago that the Home
Office was allowing bogus applications from
Bulgaria. The charge followed a fact-finding mission to
the capital Sofia by Sir John Ramsden, head
of the Foreign Office central and north-west Europe
department. Visa applications from Bulgaria and Romania have
now been suspended. Mr Moxon last night said he expected to be
cleared of wrong-doing because he had complained to
senior officials and attempted to bring his
concerns to the attention of ministers before going
public. His actions were
covered by the Public Interest Disclosure Act,
introduced by the Labour administration in 1998
to protect "whistle-blowers", he said. "Not only is it in all respects reasonable for
me to have behaved in the way I did, but I would
have failed in public duty not to have done so. "I fully expect that the Home Office will find
that I have indeed complied with the terms of the
Act and that therefore there are no grounds
whatsoever to take disciplinary action against
me." The beleaguered immigration minister insisted on
Tuesda, [March 30,
2004] that her conscience was clear over
the allegations -- and she received the full
backing of her boss, Home Secretary David
Blunkett and the Prime Minister. The Tories called for Ms Hughes to resign after
it emerged that the Home Office had been warned 18
months ago of an "organised scam" involving
Romanian and Bulgarian applicants for permission to
stay in Britain. In a stormy Commons debate, shadow home
secretary David Davis accused her of
presiding over a "catastrophic failure" in the
immigration system, which had seen embassy warnings
of bogus applications routinely ignored by
officials at the Immigration and Nationality
Directorate (IND). And Tories accused her and Mr Blunkett of trying
to palm off blame on to lowly civil servants, after
the Home Secretary said it should be "common sense"
for officials to reject applications based on
forged or fraudulent documentation. Mr Blunkett offered a
staunch defence of his minister, telling MPs:
"She has our unequivocal backing and will
continue to do so." He announced the suspension of all immigration
applications from Romania and Bulgaria while an
internal investigation is carried out. And Ms Hughes -- who has been under constant
flak since allegations of systematic waiving of
checks on would-be immigrants from eastern Europe
were first aired three weeks ago -- was
defiant. "I am not resigning, because my conscience is
clear," she told MPs. "I am neither incompetent nor
dishonest and I intend to continue doing my job as
long as the Prime Minister and Home Secretary want
me to." On the same day, Tony Blair made clear she
retained his support. His official spokesman said: "The Prime Minister
believes Beverley Hughes is a first-rate minister
and the job that she does is probably one of the
toughest jobs outside Cabinet." © 2004
Independent Digital (UK) Ltd -
Whistleblower
suspended in Britain's immigrant row: Minister
faces calls to quit over 'lax' entry checks from
new Europe | and David Irving's
commentary
-
British
immigration minister Beverley Hughes lied: she
did personally authorise opening gates to tens
of thousands of immigrants
-
Home
Office told of immigration scam 18 months ago,
claims Davis
|