Priti Patel ‘misled parliament’ on Channel asylum seekers – but faces no investigation over ministerial code

Priti Patel “misled parliament” with a series of false statements on Channel migrants – but is not being investigated for a breach of the ministerial code.

While backing a major package of laws that criminalised small boat crossings, the home secretary repeatedly told MPs the majority of arrivals were “economic migrants”.

But new Home Office statistics show that, since 2018, 94 per cent of people arriving in dinghies have claimed asylum and only 8 per cent of the applications considered have been refused.

Alistair Carmichael, the Liberal Democrats’ home affairs spokesperson, said: “A few years ago, misleading parliament meant resigning from the cabinet.

“The fact that Priti Patel refuses even to apologise for it shows that Conservative ministers clearly now believe the rules simply don’t apply to them.

“Boris Johnson and his ministers have destroyed any sense of integrity or accountability in government.”

During the period in which Ms Patel made the false statements, between October and February, Home Office reports said that “almost all” migrants crossing the English Channel sought asylum.

The ministerial code, which governs conduct and accountability, states: “It is of paramount importance that ministers give accurate and truthful information to parliament, correcting any inadvertent error at the earliest opportunity.

“Ministers who knowingly mislead parliament will be expected to offer their resignation to the prime minister.”

Ms Patel has not offered her resignation and the Home Office did not commit to correcting the record when questioned by The Independent.

The Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants accused the home secretary of “spinning a web of malicious lies to score cheap headlines and justify her cruel and racist migration policies”.

The organisation’s advocacy director, Zehrah Hasan, said: “Her statements appear all the more shameful and absurd given that her department’s own statistics contradict her claims.”

The Detention Action charity said Ms Patel had “repeatedly misled parliament and the public, peddling untruths and delegitimising some of the most traumatised people on earth”.

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Director Bella Sankey added: “By refusing to correct the parliamentary record, the home secretary and the government breach yet another constitutional norm.”

Ms Patel, who is expected to be removed as home secretary by the new prime minister next week, kept her job after a 2020 investigation found she breached the ministerial code with her treatment of civil servants.

Sir Alex Allan quit as the independent adviser on ministerial standards after Mr Johnson overruled his advice, and his successor Lord Geidt resigned after the Partygate scandal.

A new adviser has not been appointed and any probe would have to be authorised by the prime minister, meaning Ms Patel is unlikely to be investigated for the new potential breach.

More than 30,000 people have signed a petition by the Full Fact campaign group calling for “new rules to make it easy to correct mistakes and stop politicians from misleading parliament”.

The Independent has found at least four occasions on which the home secretary made false statements to the House of Commons and parliamentary committees over the characteristics of small-boat migrants.

In February, she told the home affairs select committee: “The majority of them [crossing the English Channel] are people who are not claiming asylum or fleeing persecution.”

During a House of Commons debate in November, she wrongly suggested that men travelling alone could not be refugees, arguing that the UK needed a “differentiated approach to stop economic migrants masquerading as asylum seekers and elbowing women and children who need help and support out of the way”.

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Three days earlier, Ms Patel told the House of Commons that “70 per cent of people crossing are single men and they are economic migrants”.

She was responding to an MP who pointed to research showing that most were asylum seekers. Ms Patel added: “The majority – 70 per cent – are economic migrants. They are single men coming to the United Kingdom.”

Home Office figures show that, since January 2018, 70 per cent of small-boat migrants were adult males, but the statistics do not indicate whether they were “single” and the vast majority were asylum seekers rather than “economic migrants”.

Ms Patel made a similar claim in October last year, telling the House of Lords justice and home affairs committee that “70 per cent of the individuals who have come to our country illegally via small boats are… not genuine asylum seekers”.

Figures released on Thursday show that the vast majority of asylum claims from small-boat migrants are stuck in a record Home Office backlog of outstanding cases, but of those decided 8 per cent were refused, 49 per cent were granted and the UK refused to considered the remaining 43 per cent because it argues those people could have claimed asylum in another country.

Stuart McDonald, the Scottish National Party’s immigration spokesperson, was at a home affairs committee evidence session two years ago at which Home Office officials confirmed that “very close to all small-boat arrivals claim asylum when they arrive in the UK”.

He told The Independent that the home secretary had “repeatedly tried to present the opposite of reality as fact”.

“It should require a formal correction of the record,” Mr McDonald added. “A proper understanding and accurate portrayal of what is happening in the Channel is essential, but instead the home secretary appears to prioritise politicking.

“It is not really a surprise. Whether it is making up a push-back policy, getting it wrong on visa application centres for Ukrainians, or inaccurate claims about her anti-refugee bill, sadly the home secretary cannot be relied on to properly present what is really happening.”

Clare Moseley, founder of refugee charity Care4Calais, said misinformation had become “commonplace” on Channel crossings.

She added: “It’s disgraceful that this false information, which has caused deep division in our nation, originates from our own government ministers.

“Parliament creates laws that determine the lives and death of millions of ordinary people.”

A Home Office spokesperson refused to directly respond to allegations that the home secretary had breached the ministerial code, saying: “People should claim asylum in the first safe country they reach rather than making dangerous and illegal crossings from safe countries like France.

“The New Plan for Immigration – the most comprehensive reform of the asylum system in decades – will fix the broken system.”