The Guardian view on asylum failures: David Neal was sacked for telling the truth

‘Mr Neal found out that 10 private jets a week arrived in London City airport last year without occupants undergoing passport checks.’ Photograph: https://www.gov.uk/

“There is a role in public life, for sure, for people who speak truth to power,” said David Neal, the sacked UK borders inspector, at a hearing of the home affairs select committee last week. It is a role that Mr Neal, who once commanded the 1st Military Police Brigade, did his best to perform. Independent inspectorates play a vital role in upholding standards – particularly when their job is to inspect places otherwise hidden from view. Often, they reveal problems that make ministers uncomfortable. But the truths unearthed by Mr Neal about the borders and asylum system are ones they do not want even to hear.

Mr Neal found out that 10 private jets a week arrived in London City airport last year without occupants undergoing passport checks. He pointed out that criminal gangs and extremists could exploit such lax arrangements, and said there was a “massive public interest” in exposing this. But the day after his fears were revealed in the Daily Mail, Mr Neal was sacked on a video call. He was due to step down later this month in any case. According to Mr Neal, the renewal of his contract was approved by the Home Office but blocked by Downing Street. His final annual report criticised the Home Office’s “reluctance to engage” and his termination looks like an act of revenge by an administration furious that its failings have been exposed.

Mr Neal’s title was independent chief inspector of borders and immigration (ICIBI), but holders of this office face significant constraints. Unlike the prisons inspector, for example, the ICIBI does not decide when to publish reports. This is the home secretary’s prerogative, with a recommended deadline of eight weeks. The refusal to issue 15 separate reports for up to 11 months was an issue that Mr Neal had repeatedly raised. On Thursday, a week after his dismissal, 12 were finally released. Launching 900 pages of documents at 4pm on the same day as the Angiolini report into Sarah Everard’s murder and the high-profile Rochdale byelection was deeply cynical.

Lack of training for staff working with asylum‑seeking families in Northern Ireland, poor anti-smuggling capability and a disturbing game in which children seeking asylum were encouraged by staff to guess who would be placed in foster care are among the egregious failures cited. Mr Neal criticises a culture that “prioritises office‑bound policy over on-the-ground experience” and recommends stronger engagement with the British Red Cross and UNHCR, which are “incredibly knowledgeable partners”. The backlog of asylum claims must be reduced, but Mr Neal said that there was a fixation with doing so “at all costs”, leading to what he called perverse outcomes, with quality sacrificed to speed.

No replacement for Mr Neal has been lined up. Inspections cannot be completed, important work cannot begin and the judicial review regarding events at Manston asylum centre in 2022, including diphtheria and scabies outbreaks and a man’s death, is imminent (Mr Neal said conditions there were “wretched” and left him “speechless”). Last year, he wrote in the Guardian that “the Home Office does not have the will to face up to the challenges”. Despite the departure of Suella Braverman and her replacement with the more moderate James Cleverly, the government is stuck in a rut. It has ditched an experienced watchdog for doing his job – because ministers do not want to do theirs.