Can Priti Patel’s asylum shake-up help Britain take back control?

Every Home Secretary is forced to confront the cold political realities of the office. What they set out to deliver – strengthening countermeasures in the aftermath of a terror attack, say, or taking steps to tackle a spike in violent crime – tends to be supported by swathes of the public at large.

But though they can enjoy that currency of quiet public support, Home Secretaries of both major parties must then do battle ‘inside the Beltway’ with a vociferous legal and human rights establishment – and other vested interests ­– which seek to dilute their policy responses to the challenge of the day. To use a term of art, it is often a ‘hostile environment’ for holders of that least understood great office of State.

As night follows day therefore, Priti Patel’s announcement of reforms to the asylum system was criticised yesterday by, among others, the UK spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the chief executive of the British Red Cross, and the barrister editor of the immigration law website Free Movement.