Sunday, April 24, 2022
Are accusations of misleading Parliament becoming a Tory trait?
With Boris Johnson facing an imminent standards investigation to establish whether he lied to Parliament or not, you would think that other ministers might stop and think. But no, according to the Guardian, the home secretary has now been accused of misleading parliament after a high court ruling revealed that unpublished parts of a controversial policy to push back migrant dinghies in the Channel said the tactic would not be used against asylum seekers.
The paper says that the pushbacks policy was finalised in autumn 2021, yet in January this year Priti Patel said pushing back migrant boats was “absolutely still policy” when she gave evidence to the Lords justice and home affairs committee. She has been accused of giving that evidence even though she knew about the unpublished clauses in the policy not to use pushbacks against asylum seekers:
Details of the unpublished policy came to light during a legal challenge to the pushbacks plan brought by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), and the NGOs Care4Calais, Channel Rescue and Freedom From Torture.
The Home Office had applied to the high court for public interest immunity to avoid making the details of the pushbacks policy public. This mechanism is used where sensitive issues such as organised crime, terrorism or national security are involved.
But judges said disclosure of the policy did not “give rise to a real risk of serious harm to the public interest”.
The government has always said the pushbacks policy would only be used when safe to deploy it. Restrictions on usage of the tactic are outlined in the nationality and borders bill which is due to return to the House of Lords on 26 April. However, since the policy was announced last October ministers have not said publicly that it would not be used against asylum seekers.
A key part of the unpublished policy disclosed in the high court judgment is that anyone in a dinghy who indicates they wish to claim asylum in the UK should not be pushed back but instead escorted to UK shores. Almost everyone who uses this method to reach the UK is an asylum seeker according to the Home Office’s own data.
The ruling reveals the pushback policy states: “Should a migrant request asylum whilst in UK territorial waters they must be returned to the UK for processing.”
According to the high court judgment, a clause in the unpublished policy says “the actual number of migrant vessels successfully intercepted is likely to be extremely low”. It adds that one of the “acceptable outcomes” is that during operational deployments no migrant vessels are assessed as suitable for safe turnaround.
Anybody would think Ministers believe themselves to be above effective scrutiny.
The paper says that the pushbacks policy was finalised in autumn 2021, yet in January this year Priti Patel said pushing back migrant boats was “absolutely still policy” when she gave evidence to the Lords justice and home affairs committee. She has been accused of giving that evidence even though she knew about the unpublished clauses in the policy not to use pushbacks against asylum seekers:
Details of the unpublished policy came to light during a legal challenge to the pushbacks plan brought by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), and the NGOs Care4Calais, Channel Rescue and Freedom From Torture.
The Home Office had applied to the high court for public interest immunity to avoid making the details of the pushbacks policy public. This mechanism is used where sensitive issues such as organised crime, terrorism or national security are involved.
But judges said disclosure of the policy did not “give rise to a real risk of serious harm to the public interest”.
The government has always said the pushbacks policy would only be used when safe to deploy it. Restrictions on usage of the tactic are outlined in the nationality and borders bill which is due to return to the House of Lords on 26 April. However, since the policy was announced last October ministers have not said publicly that it would not be used against asylum seekers.
A key part of the unpublished policy disclosed in the high court judgment is that anyone in a dinghy who indicates they wish to claim asylum in the UK should not be pushed back but instead escorted to UK shores. Almost everyone who uses this method to reach the UK is an asylum seeker according to the Home Office’s own data.
The ruling reveals the pushback policy states: “Should a migrant request asylum whilst in UK territorial waters they must be returned to the UK for processing.”
According to the high court judgment, a clause in the unpublished policy says “the actual number of migrant vessels successfully intercepted is likely to be extremely low”. It adds that one of the “acceptable outcomes” is that during operational deployments no migrant vessels are assessed as suitable for safe turnaround.
Anybody would think Ministers believe themselves to be above effective scrutiny.
