- BY CJ McKinney
Patel refuses to speak to me, immigration inspector complains
THANKS FOR READING
Older content is locked
A great deal of time and effort goes into producing the information on Free Movement, become a member of Free Movement to get unlimited access to all articles, and much, much more
TAKE FREE MOVEMENT FURTHER
By becoming a member of Free Movement, you not only support the hard-work that goes into maintaining the website, but get access to premium features;
- Single login for personal use
- FREE downloads of Free Movement ebooks
- Access to all Free Movement blog content
- Access to all our online training materials
- Access to our busy forums
- Downloadable CPD certificates
Home Secretary Priti Patel has refused to meet the immigration inspector since he took up the job over a year ago.
David Neal told the Home Affairs committee of MPs this afternoon he was “disappointed that I’ve not spoken to the Home Secretary and frustrated because I think I have a lot of things to offer from the position that I hold”. Mr Neal, a former head of the military police, was appointed Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration in March 2021.
“I’ve asked to speak to her on a number of occasions”, Mr Neal complained. “Prearranged meetings have been cancelled on, I think, five or six occasions now… clearly there’s a reason why I’ve not got that access”.
During a preappointment hearing before the same committee, he had predicted “I would expect to have a regular cadence of meetings with Ministers, including the Home Secretary; I would be surprised if I didn’t. Certainly, in the Ministry of Defence, I never had any difficulty at all with accessing senior officials or getting into Ministers’ offices”.
Mr Neal’s predecessor, David Bolt, didn’t get a single meeting with the Home Secretary either during his last year on the job. But he had two audiences in 2019/20 and one in 2018/19, annual reports show.
The inspector says that he does have decent access to junior ministers, including Kevin Foster and Tom Pursglove, as well as senior officials.
Asked how he has found the Home Office so far, Mr Neal told MPs that “there always seems to be a crisis going on”, but officials have been “open” and “candid”.
SHARE
