Smith defends Home Office against 'spin' row
Tuesday, 13 November 2007 12:00 AM
The home secretary has appeared before MPs to unpick the latest Home Office "spin" row.
The Home Office has been accused of quashing evidence 5,000 illegal immigrants had been cleared to work in security because it thought the story would not be played "positively" by the media.
The Conservatives have accused Jacqui Smith of covering up the reports because she knew the news was "going to look bad for the government."
Ms Smith told the House of Commons today she had not withheld the information because it made the government look bad but because "it was not good enough because the analysis of the situation had not been completed."
Memos now published by the Daily Mail reveal Ms Smith was informed on July 12 that up to 5,000 illegal immigrants had been cleared for security jobs at ports and airports as well as with the Metropolitan police force.
The error occurred after the Security Industry Authority, which is responsible for clearing private security workers, failed to check their immigration status.
Ms Smith spoke to Home Office ministers Tony McNulty and Liam Bryne as well as civil servants at the department a month later and agreed it was best to say nothing.
A note from the Home Office press office on August 20 said it would "recommend strongly" against going public, noting that the full extent of the situation was still unknown.
It said the press would not interpret it as a positive story and risked linking it to past Home Office "blunders".
Ms Smith's private secretary, Mark Williams, wrote that the home secretary: "Did not think the lines to take that we currently have are good enough for press office or ministers to use to explain the situation".
The home secretary insisted today the department had not been remiss in withholding the information.
She told MPs: "The responsible thing to do was to establish the full nature and scale of the problem.rather than immediately put incomplete and potentially misleading information into the public domain."
Downing Street has refused to confirm when the prime minister was first involved in the situation. His official spokesman said it was clear that when the issue arose the Home Office did take action, adding Mr Brown has "full confidence" in Ms Smith.
David Cameron this morning insisted there were "some really big questions for the home secretary to answer."
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme he said: "It looks very much like they put the convenience of when they wanted to announce things to the press ... ahead of considerations of public safety and telling the public what was happening."
The Liberal Democrats maintain the Home Office should have come clean about the mistake immediately, allowing it to start sorting out the problem.
Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg said: "It is completely unacceptable that their first instinct was to start a cover-up.
"Perhaps if the Home Office was more worried about getting things right and less worried about spinning, these mistakes would not happen at all."
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