‘Vindictive Theresa May hung border chief out to dry to save her job’

The Home Secretary is under intense pressure after border force chief Brodie Clark quit his job and accused her of misleading Parliament, saying she was simply blaming him for “political convenience”.

Mrs May answered questions over the security of the UK’s borders for a third day, amid Labour MPs’ calls for her to resign over the scandal, which could have allowed an unknown number of foreign criminals into the UK.

Mr Straw said: “What a great shame that the Secretary of State has jumped impetuously to a conclusion without any proper evidence, without allowing others to respond to that.

“At the heart of this debate is the conduct of the Home Secretary and the level of ministerial responsibility, both for competence in running the department and moral responsibility for what happens in that department.

“The whole system will seize up unless those who are lower down in the system believe those at the top have their confidence and are ready, when things go wrong, to take responsibility.

“You have to ensure you take the majority of the staff with you. What you don’t do, and I’m sorry the Secretary of State has embarked on this, is go for what appears to me, whatever her personal motives, both a vindictive and punitive approach of hanging someone out to dry because it appears to her that would be a good way of saving her career.”

In a scathing parting shot, Mr Clark flatly denied “improperly” extending a relaxation of entry controls and said he was suing for constructive dismissal.

The intervention was swiftly countered with a statement from the UK Border Agency (UKBA) chief Rob Whiteman, insisting Mr Clark had admitted going beyond ministerial orders.

Both men will appear before the Commons home affairs select committee on Tuesday, along with immigration minister Damian Green.

Committee chairman Keith Vaz pledged to “get to the bottom of this serious breach of security”, saying Mr Clark’s parting shot in his resignation statement directly contradicted Mrs May’s evidence to MPs.

Mrs May said she had authorised piloting the easing of some border checks on EU travellers over the summer, partly to reduce queues.

But she insisted Mr Clark had gone further by scrapping key checks against a Home Office database of suspected terrorists and illegal immigrants without ministerial approval.

Mr Clark hit back, saying Mrs May’s statements were “wrong”, denying that he “added additional measures, improperly, to the trial of our risk-based controls”, and insisting the measures had been in place since 2008-9.

But Mrs May cast doubt on Mr Clark’s statement. She said: “If he is talking about the warnings index guidance published in 2007, that guidance makes clear any relaxation of warnings index checks should be done in extreme circumstances for health and safety reasons.

“And if he thought these measures were already allowed, why did he seek ministerial approval for new pilot measures this year?”

Mrs May said on Tuesday that she rejected Mr Clark’s suggestions for border checks to be relaxed further prior to the start of a pilot scheme this summer, but said he secretly went ahead with them anyway.

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union said there was now “open warfare at the highest levels of UKBA”.

David Cameron said he supported the decision to suspend Mr Clark, with Downing Street aides adding the Prime Minister has full confidence in Mrs May.

But Labour leader Ed Miliband denounced the situation as “a complete fiasco”.