Thirteen years ago, when John Reid became Home Secretary, he declared the ministry he presided over ‘not fit for purpose’. He was talking about border control but he might well have been referring to the department in general. When Theresa May became PM, things at the Home Office went from bad to worse. Her paranoid style as PM, developed as a survival mechanism when she was Home Secretary, was disastrous.
The Windrush debacle, the most shameful example of government dysfunction in recent times, was a sign that change was long overdue. And yet this chaotic department, riven with internal feuds and a lack of accountability, now has a gargantuan task ahead of it. Within a matter of months it must produce a post-Brexit immigration system and sort out the EU settlement scheme — knowing that, as with Windrush, failure will have human consequences.
It is impossible to reform any government department so it runs as efficiently as a private company
Boris Johnson is committed to a plan that would test the most efficient of organisations.
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