Clarke orders raids over freed detainees
Five foreign ex-prisoners have reoffended
Friday, 28, Apr 2006 12:00
Home secretary Charles Clarke has ordered a series of raids to detain freed foreign prisoners who have not been deported.
The raids are being conducted by the police in conjunction with immigration officers.
The orders from the embattled home secretary come just a day after he revealed that five foreign prisoners let out of jail without being considered for deportation had reoffended after release with more violent and drug-related crimes.
His admission, made in a letter to the speaker of the House of Commons yesterday, led to renewed calls for the home secretary to resign, with both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats calling the incident an "abject" and "major failure".
Mr Clarke's announcement came after revelations earlier this week that he had allowed 1,023 foreign prisoners to be released without considering whether or not they should be deported, an error he has admitted full responsibility for.
"I am committed to lead the changes and improvements which the community rightly expects of us and to build on the many successes which have already been achieved," his statement to the Commons said.
"The genuine shortcomings which have been revealed in dealing with foreign national prisoners will be repaired and we will learn the lessons to make whatever further changes are needed to improve the quality of what we do across the whole Home Office."
Tony Blair has publicly declared his support for the beleaguered home secretary, with commentators suggesting that Mr Clarke's pugnacious defence of his own actions may yet see him survive the crisis.
"Blair has lost quite a few allies in cabinet and so he wouldn't want to lose Clarke if he could avoid it… but there comes a point where you can't protect people any more," Wyn Grant, professor of politics at Warwick University, explained to Reuters.
A poll published by the Times found that two-thirds of voters believe Mr Clarke should lose his job as home secretary.