David Neal vs the Home Office

‘I’ve been sacked for doing my job. I think I’ve been sacked for doing what the law asks of me and I’ve breached, I’ve fallen down over a clause in my employment contract, which I think is a crying shame.’

That was just one of the bombs that former independent chief inspector of borders and immigration David Neal dropped at his select committee hearing this afternoon. It was never going to be a comfortable hearing, given he was sacked for being awkward to ministers in the reports he was writing on the state of border security (although they would say he was sacked for being awkward by leaking the contents of those reports).

Neal’s argument was that he needed to be awkward to do his job. He said:

Surely it’s part of the job, for me to be effective, for me to make an assessment of the effectiveness and efficiency of what’s going on within the Home Office.