Retirees to staff border controls

Retired immigration officers will be brought back to ease airport border control queues during the Olympics, it was reported yesterday.

Passport checkpoint veterans will return to duty over the summer to cope with the extra visitors set to descend on terminals in the south-east.

The revelation came after criticism of three-hour queues at Heathrow last week, prompting fears the hub will struggle to deal with the predicted hundreds of thousands additional passengers arriving for the London Games.

It was reported the Border Force, an agency of the Home Office, planned to spend £2.5 million bringing back former members of staff who will receive travel expenses, be given hotel accommodation and paid allowances of up to £30 an hour.