Puss ’n’ boot? Clarke’s job in doubt after spat over cat rumbles on

Kenneth Clarke has stopped short of apologising as speculation over his future in the Cabinet continued to grow after he attacked Home Secretary Theresa May’s use of “laughable and childlike” examples to criticise the Human Rights Act.

But the Justice Secretary admitted he did “rather regret the colourful language” he used to question publicly Mrs May’s claim that an illegal immigrant escaped being deported because he had a pet cat.

The spat dominated much of the Conservative Party conference this week and showed no signs of abating last night, despite Mr Clarke’s insistence that he considered the issue closed.

Dismissing as “old news” his own comments made during the conference in Manchester, Mr Clarke said: “I consider this issue closed. The Prime Minister has made the position clear, and I fully support it.

“There is a problem with deporting foreign prisoners, which I have always agreed with Theresa needs to be addressed. The government’s commission on a bill of rights is under way.”

But he added: “I do rather regret the colourful language I used at one point in my interview.”

The row erupted during the conference when Mrs May announced plans to change rules which prevent the deportation of foreign offenders on human rights grounds, and cited the case of a Bolivian man here illegally who, she said, had escaped being sent back to his home country because he had a pet cat.

Mr Clarke said he did not believe that any such case existed and issued a challenge to his Cabinet colleague to accept his bet that she could not provide details of it.

The Judicial Office, which represents judges, later backed him up by issuing a statement confirming the cat, named Maya, had “nothing to do” with the 2009 decision to allow a Bolivian man to remain in the UK.

Mr Clarke claimed his Cabinet colleague had enraged judges and officials by turning the case into a “parody”.

In an interview published in a local newspaper yesterday, he said: “It’s not only the judges that all get furious when the Home Secretary makes a parody of a court judgment, our commission, who are helping us form our view on this, are not going to be entertained by laughable, childlike examples being given.

“We have a policy and, in my old-fashioned way, when you serve in a government you express a collective policy of the government. You don’t go round telling everyone your personal opinion is different.”

Mr Clarke also acknowledged his next meeting with the Home Secretary was likely to be fractious.

But Mrs May, who held a pink mug featuring a grey cat as she met youngsters in London yesterday morning, remained firm.

She said: “I used an example where an immigration judge had, as part of his decision that somebody could not be deported, cited the fact that the individual had bought a cat with their partner as a sign of the quality of their family life.”

Both ministers later emerged from 10 Downing Street together after attending a meeting which a No 10 spokesman insisted was a long-standing event.

They both smiled, but declined to speak..

Mr Clarke’s position in Cabinet has been precarious for some time. Earlier this year he was condemned for appearing to suggest some forms of rape were not serious and is viewed by many as too soft on crime.

He is expected to be one of the losers in Mr Cameron’s first reshuffle.