Is the Home Office working against the Tories?

It has long been suggested by senior politicians from both main parties that civil servants in the Home Office pick and choose which government policies to implement and which to ignore or undermine.

On the Labour side, David Blunkett once complained of his reforms being ‘swamped by the history and practices of the Home Office’ while John Reid famously branded the section of the department charged with running immigration policy as ‘not fit for purpose’.

It certainly looks like yet more evidence of a department whose personnel are engaged in a cultural rebellion against the policies of an elected administration

On the Tory side, a source ‘close to Amber Rudd’ accused the department’s then Permanent Secretary of having been ‘purposefully opaque’ with her. Priti Patel fell out with the same official, Sir Philip Rutnam, in spectacular style having allegedly nicknamed him ‘Dr No’.

So it probably should not come as a surprise to learn that the government’s flagship attempts to toughen-up asylum processes are simply not reflected in a Home Office manual for staff assessing individual claims.