Has anyone used the “Mayday” gag yet? Perhaps it’s too cheap and obvious,
but it’s certainly applicable today. Not only are Theresa May’s troubles still splayed across the newspapers — sure to come up in PMQs later — but they have also been aggravated by the man who just quit
as head of the UK Border Agency’s border force. So far as the bookies are
concerned, the Home Secretary is now second-favourite (behind Chris Huhne) to be the Cabinet’s next ejectee.
As for how the former head of the UK Border Agency’s border force, Brodie Clark, has made things difficult for May, I’d suggest you read his resignation statement here. In effect, he accuses May of misleading the Commons about his role in reducing border queues. He also claims that he came up against ministerial pressure to reduce queues. And, just for good measure, he’s going to sue the Home Secretary for constructive dismissal too. There are two sides to every story, as they say — and now one of them has gone to war.
Until now, Number 10 has been firmly behind May. The story they’ve told so far is that the Home Secretary authorised a pilot scheme to ease border cloggage; that Clark exceeded his remit in implementing it; that May didn’t know at the time; so what can you do? Quite reasonable on the surface, you might think. But now that Clark is publically contradicting the second element of that story, and perhaps the third too, then something needs clarifying. Little wonder that Labour is pushing for the publication, today, of papers relating to the matter.
Clark is appearing before the home affairs select committee next Tuesday, so expect to hear more detail from him then. The question is whether we are looking at a man wronged, or at civil service blundering and hubris. And the answer, of course, could rest in the middle.
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