Cleverly sacks border chief who spoke out on immigration security failings

Home Secretary terminates David Neal’s contract for ‘breaching terms of appointment’ by disclosing ‘unauthorised’ information to media

James Cleverly has sacked the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration after he spoke out about immigration security failings.
The Home Secretary terminated the contract of David Neal for “breaching the terms of his appointment” by disclosing “unauthorised” information to the media.
A Home Office spokesman said the contract had been terminated after Mr Neal “lost the confidence of the Home Secretary”.
It followed warnings by Mr Neal that an inspection at London City Airport had uncovered “dangerous” failings where passengers on “high risk” flights were not being properly security checked.
The Home Office categorically denied claims that only one in five of the flights were physically checked by Border Force officers, saying the figures were wrong and had been released before being fact-checked.
It is understood, however, that Mr Neal was ready to stand by the concerns and was preparing to give evidence on them to a Lords committee next week.
He is also understood to have been frustrated at delays to the publication of his inspection reports, with the Home Office sitting on 15 that have yet to be published.
On Tuesday afternoon, Mr Neal was told by a senior official at the Home Office that his contract was being terminated early. It had been due to end on March 21.
This was followed by a letter from Mr Cleverly telling him that he had breached his contract and terms of his appointment through the unauthorised disclosure of information to the media.
Earlier, in a statement to the Commons on the flight checks, Tom Pursglove, the Home Office minister, told MPs: “It’s deeply disturbing that information which has no basis in fact was leaked by the independent chief inspector to a national newspaper before the Home Office had the chance to respond.
“We are urgently investigating this breach of confidential information in full in the normal way.”