Senior Conservative Lee Anderson blasted Home Office chiefs for their “staggering” failure to provide figures on the floundering asylum system to a group of MPs.
The Tory deputy leader said “the big boss has no idea” during bizarre questioning by the department’s permanent secretary, Sir Matthew Rycroft.
It came as Sir Matthew and his Home Office deputy made an explosive admission saying they did not know what happened to 17,000 asylum seekers whose claims were withdrawn.
Senior MPs on the home affairs committee expressed surprise, with deputy permanent secretary Simon Ridley saying: “In most cases I don’t know where these people are.”
Labor leader Dame Diana Johnson said it was “surprising” that senior officials did not have more precise figures and accused them of “really disrespecting this committee”.
Mr Anderson, a crusading right-wing Tory, demanded figures showing that most people whose asylum claims were rejected, excluding criminals and Albanians, had been deported in the past three years.
Sir Matthew and his assistant looked confused before Mr Ridley said: “I don’t think we did anything like that.” [those numbers].” The permanent secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs later said that they would “write to the committee with these numbers”.
Mr. Anderson became angry: “I’m sorry… but I find it absolutely surprising that the big boss has no idea not only about this question, but almost every question we asked today.”
Negotiations on Rishi Sunak’s planned new agreement with Rwanda on deportation policy are in the final stages, according to a senior Home Office official.
Sir Matthew told MPs that officials were in the capital Kigali “as we speak” and were putting the “finishing touches” on talks after the High Court ruled against a plan to send some asylum seekers on a one-way trip to the African country.
Questioned further by MPs, Home Office officials were unable to say how many people could come to the UK from Rwanda under a clause in the deportation agreement signed by the Conservative government.
Sir Matthew said it was not a one-to-one deal, before admitting the Home Office “didn’t have a figure in mind”.
Senior Tory Tim Loughton also asked Mr Rycroft why he could not give any figures for the cost of sending asylum seekers to Rwanda when a Home Office document clearly puts the cost at £169,000 per person.
Senior Home Office officials were unable to give MPs across parties a figure on the cost of the deal to relocate asylum seekers to the Bibby Stockholm barge off the Dorset coast.
Mr Loughton challenged authorities over 17,316 asylum claims being withdrawn until September 2023. The senior Tory said 5 per cent of cases were classed as retractions because their allegations were not proven, but 95 per cent of retractions were classed as having occurred. “for other reasons”.
Mr Ridley said these were asylum seekers who had applied, been invited for an interview but did not show up. “In most cases I don’t know where these people are,” he said.
Keir Starmer used PMQs to say Mr Sunak was facing “open rebellion” from Tory MPs and that the Prime Minister had “lost control of the borders” as well as his own front lines.
Referring to Immigration Secretary Robert Jenrick’s push for a tough, five-point plan to tackle record net migration, Mr Starmer said: “The Immigration minister thinks the prime minister has failed because apparently no-one will listen to his secret plan. The former home secretary thinks he failed because of his magical thinking.”
The Labor leader said: “The Prime Minister appears to be the only person in the Tory bench without his own personal immigration plan. Cleary’s side has no faith in him. Why should the public do this?
Veteran right-wing Tory John Hayes said Mr Sunak should introduce “urgent measures” to deal with record levels of legal immigration. He also demanded that the emergency bill in Rwanda be in “the same form” as Mr Jenrick proposed.
Mr Hayes, leader of the Common Sense Group, who claimed Mr Jenrick was a “true believer”, said the net migration figures were a “disaster” for everyone except “guilt-ridden bourgeois liberals”.
In a sign of the Conservative Party’s growing impatience with Mr Sunak, the right-winger Simon Clarke tweeted: “Either we put together a credible plan on legal immigration and a really solid emergency bill for Rwanda or we face more PMQs like this.” We will face it.”
Cabinet minister Steve Barclay said Rishi Sunak’s government must go “further, faster” to cut net migration after the latest figures showed net migration reached a record high of 745,000 last year.
Former health secretary Mr Barclay confirmed restrictions on relatives of social care workers were being considered by Mr Sunak and home secretary James Cleverly.
“One of the areas that I know the Home Secretary will want to look at is the dependents of those coming into the care sector,” he told Times Radio. “So there’s a range of options.”