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| UK Border Agency abolition is another sign of politicians spooked by Ukip | UK Border Agency abolition is another sign of politicians spooked by Ukip |
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| For more than 20 years the single issue of immigration has had the power to spook serving British politicians of all parties, especially when they have to face up to their prospects for re-election. | For more than 20 years the single issue of immigration has had the power to spook serving British politicians of all parties, especially when they have to face up to their prospects for re-election. |
| David Cameron is no exception. When he delivered his "get tough" immigration speech on Monday there is no doubt that he had the surge in the Ukip vote at the Eastleigh byelection firmly in his sights. But the problem was that his claims of immigrant benefit claimants and social housing queue-jumpers were seen to unravel within hours. | David Cameron is no exception. When he delivered his "get tough" immigration speech on Monday there is no doubt that he had the surge in the Ukip vote at the Eastleigh byelection firmly in his sights. But the problem was that his claims of immigrant benefit claimants and social housing queue-jumpers were seen to unravel within hours. |
| Senior Home Office officials say the plan to abolish the UK Border Agency has been under consideration "for several months", but Cameron and Nick Clegg only signed off the final decision to scrap the five-year-old organisation on the morning of its announcement. | Senior Home Office officials say the plan to abolish the UK Border Agency has been under consideration "for several months", but Cameron and Nick Clegg only signed off the final decision to scrap the five-year-old organisation on the morning of its announcement. |
| As the home secretary, Theresa May, was on her feet in the Commons announcing the agency's death – having sent the prime minister an overnight note to that effect on Monday – her permanent secretary, Mark Sedwill, was busy reassuring Home Office staff in an internal memo: "Most of us will still be doing the same job in the same place with the same colleagues for the same boss and with the same mission." | As the home secretary, Theresa May, was on her feet in the Commons announcing the agency's death – having sent the prime minister an overnight note to that effect on Monday – her permanent secretary, Mark Sedwill, was busy reassuring Home Office staff in an internal memo: "Most of us will still be doing the same job in the same place with the same colleagues for the same boss and with the same mission." |
| The timing of the announcement angered MPs, who had been told in a written ministerial statement only last Thursday – when May was finalising the details of the abolition plan in the Home Office – by her immigration minister, Mark Harper, that UKBA had "already shown signs of significant improvement" and was on a "sure footing". | The timing of the announcement angered MPs, who had been told in a written ministerial statement only last Thursday – when May was finalising the details of the abolition plan in the Home Office – by her immigration minister, Mark Harper, that UKBA had "already shown signs of significant improvement" and was on a "sure footing". |
| Harper gave no hint that in reality that UKBA was already officially regarded within the Home Office as a "closed, secretive and defensive" organisation that was so incapable of reform that it deserved to be scrapped. | Harper gave no hint that in reality that UKBA was already officially regarded within the Home Office as a "closed, secretive and defensive" organisation that was so incapable of reform that it deserved to be scrapped. |
| It is little wonder therefore that the circumstances around its death immediately prompted Westminster speculation that the announcement had simply been rushed forward from after the Easter recess in order to put some political punch back into the prime minister's tarnished anti-Ukip immigration initiative. | It is little wonder therefore that the circumstances around its death immediately prompted Westminster speculation that the announcement had simply been rushed forward from after the Easter recess in order to put some political punch back into the prime minister's tarnished anti-Ukip immigration initiative. |
| It will not be the first time in the recent history of immigration and asylum policy that prime ministers and home secretaries have only focused on the crisis-hit immigration service when they felt their electoral prospects were directly threatened. | It will not be the first time in the recent history of immigration and asylum policy that prime ministers and home secretaries have only focused on the crisis-hit immigration service when they felt their electoral prospects were directly threatened. |
| Tony Blair once surprised the Home Office by announcing a target to halve the number of asylum seekers before the 2005 general election live on BBC Newsnight. | Tony Blair once surprised the Home Office by announcing a target to halve the number of asylum seekers before the 2005 general election live on BBC Newsnight. |
| As the Commons home affairs committee and many hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers and migrants have repeatedly testified, the British immigration and asylum system has been permanently in crisis since the late 1990s. | As the Commons home affairs committee and many hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers and migrants have repeatedly testified, the British immigration and asylum system has been permanently in crisis since the late 1990s. |
| The stunning thing is that some people still stuck in the backlog of 310,000 cases that sealed UKBA's death warrant are actually a direct legacy from that breakdown in the system. It was triggered by a botched computerisation that left thousands of paper files rotting in the asbestos-infected basements of its Croydon headquarters and saw the asylum backlog first soar to 119,000 with only 33,000 decisions being made each year. | The stunning thing is that some people still stuck in the backlog of 310,000 cases that sealed UKBA's death warrant are actually a direct legacy from that breakdown in the system. It was triggered by a botched computerisation that left thousands of paper files rotting in the asbestos-infected basements of its Croydon headquarters and saw the asylum backlog first soar to 119,000 with only 33,000 decisions being made each year. |
| The organisation has never really recovered from that fundamental breakdown. The "legacy" cases involving more than 450,000 claims – some of whom have already left the country – were repeatedly parked just to enable immigration staff to deal with the annual toll of new applications. As the legacy cases have been dealt with so fresh backlogs have arisen. As the home secretary put it on Tuesday: "It too often focuses on the crisis in hand at the expense of its structures and systems to get on top of its workload." Its computer systems are still woeful, with paper files still used more often than the tools of modern electronic case management. | The organisation has never really recovered from that fundamental breakdown. The "legacy" cases involving more than 450,000 claims – some of whom have already left the country – were repeatedly parked just to enable immigration staff to deal with the annual toll of new applications. As the legacy cases have been dealt with so fresh backlogs have arisen. As the home secretary put it on Tuesday: "It too often focuses on the crisis in hand at the expense of its structures and systems to get on top of its workload." Its computer systems are still woeful, with paper files still used more often than the tools of modern electronic case management. |
| For more than 50 years in the 20th century the Home Office had dealt with the issue through its oddly named aliens department. In 1962 it was quietly changed to the immigration and nationality department or IND. After John Reid infamously declared it "not fit for purpose" in May 2006, it was first relaunched as an "arms-length" Borders and Immigration Agency in April 2007 and then, after a merger with UK visas and customs staff, it was renamed the UK Borders Agency. | For more than 50 years in the 20th century the Home Office had dealt with the issue through its oddly named aliens department. In 1962 it was quietly changed to the immigration and nationality department or IND. After John Reid infamously declared it "not fit for purpose" in May 2006, it was first relaunched as an "arms-length" Borders and Immigration Agency in April 2007 and then, after a merger with UK visas and customs staff, it was renamed the UK Borders Agency. |
| The detail of Reid's "not fit for purpose" statement bears uncomfortable echoes of this week's statement by May. It had been preceded two weeks before by the resignation of Charles Clarke as home secretary for failing to get a grip on the deportation of released foreign prisoners. Reid talked of "inadequate" leadership and management systems and described the immigration system as "dysfunctional" and said a "wholesale transformation" was probably needed. As May did on Tuesday, he said it was "still in a state of transition from a paper-based system to a technology-based one". | The detail of Reid's "not fit for purpose" statement bears uncomfortable echoes of this week's statement by May. It had been preceded two weeks before by the resignation of Charles Clarke as home secretary for failing to get a grip on the deportation of released foreign prisoners. Reid talked of "inadequate" leadership and management systems and described the immigration system as "dysfunctional" and said a "wholesale transformation" was probably needed. As May did on Tuesday, he said it was "still in a state of transition from a paper-based system to a technology-based one". |
| For Labour the most corrosive charge was that they had lost control of the border. Reid's response was to put the staff into uniform and put up big notices saying "UK Border" at every airport. It didn't work if only because the Home Office had little role in what proved to be the largest wave of migration to Britain in the 20th century: the arrival of the Poles and other east Europeans, who as EU citizens had no need to get a Home Office visa to work in Britain. All they had to do was register that they were here to work. | For Labour the most corrosive charge was that they had lost control of the border. Reid's response was to put the staff into uniform and put up big notices saying "UK Border" at every airport. It didn't work if only because the Home Office had little role in what proved to be the largest wave of migration to Britain in the 20th century: the arrival of the Poles and other east Europeans, who as EU citizens had no need to get a Home Office visa to work in Britain. All they had to do was register that they were here to work. |
| "Arms-length agencies" have had a troubled history in Whitehall ever since Michael Howard sparred with the prison service director general, Derek Lewis, over whether he had the right to dismiss the governor of Parkhurst prison after a top security breakout. | "Arms-length agencies" have had a troubled history in Whitehall ever since Michael Howard sparred with the prison service director general, Derek Lewis, over whether he had the right to dismiss the governor of Parkhurst prison after a top security breakout. |
| This time May has rightly concluded that making the immigration service an "arms-length agency" only managed to create a "closed, secretive and defensive" culture. | This time May has rightly concluded that making the immigration service an "arms-length agency" only managed to create a "closed, secretive and defensive" culture. |
| One important political feature of agency status was that it was UKBA's chief executive, Lin Homer, whose "catastrophic leadership failure" was castigated on Monday, and her successor, Rob Whiteman, who had to take the flak when things went wrong. | One important political feature of agency status was that it was UKBA's chief executive, Lin Homer, whose "catastrophic leadership failure" was castigated on Monday, and her successor, Rob Whiteman, who had to take the flak when things went wrong. |
| Now the home secretary and her immigration minister will again be directly in the firing line with nobody else to blame. May, not for the first time, has taken a bold political gamble in order to put a flash of steel into Cameron's blunted political initiative. | Now the home secretary and her immigration minister will again be directly in the firing line with nobody else to blame. May, not for the first time, has taken a bold political gamble in order to put a flash of steel into Cameron's blunted political initiative. |
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