Hughes defends immigration process
Immigration minister Beverley Hughes faced a tough grilling from MPs over claims that checks on immigrants from eastern Europe were waived in order to rush applications through ahead of EU expansion in May.
The first results of an inquiry into the claims, made by an immigration official in a Sunday newspaper, are expected by the end of this week.
Ms Hughes named Ken Sutton as the official heading the internal investigation and defended the decision to hold an in-house probe into the actions of the Immigration and Nationality Directorate.
Facing the Commons home affairs select committee on Tuesday, Ms Hughes admitted that she could not say how many applications were affected and revealed that officials involved were now being questioned to find out who had agreed the policy.
“I would not ever compromise my own integrity, I would not lie under any circumstances,” Ms Hughes told the cross-party committee.
The minister continued: “I did not know, my director general did not know, the managers of the executive group, who report to me, did not know. No ministers had authorised that (change). No ministers knew about that.”
Asked if an independent inquiry would have been more beneficial, Ms Hughes insisted that she had wanted answers this week about the affair and an independent inquiry would have taken too long.
Immigration official Steve Moxon, who is currently suspended from his job, alleged that normal immigration checks, including proof of tax payments and bank statements, had been waived in order to massage migration figures from countries destined for EU expansion.
Ms Hughes said that nether she nor senior managers had been aware of the policy at the Sheffield office. She refuted claims that it was an attempt to fiddle figures, arguing that it was designed to clear a backlog of applications.
She did, however, admit that Mr Moxon had made several attempts to contact her about the change of policy.
Tory shadow home secretary David Davis has demanded that Mr Moxon be reinstated immediately and is calling for Ms Hughes resignation.
Ms Hughes has refused to resign, stating: “It is absolutely absurd to imply when a group of officials have changed their procedures and indeed that has been kept secret … that is something I am responsible for, as opposed to accountable for putting right.”
The prime minister’s official spokesman told reporters yesterday that Tony Blair continued to have full confidence in Ms Hughes and added that he believed she has handled a very difficult brief very well.
