Priti Patel is said to have threatened to sue Suella Braverman, her successor at the Home Office, in a dispute about overcrowding at the Manston asylum processing centre.
The row follows the controversy over “Dickensian” conditions at the Kent facility where thousands of asylum seekers were held for several weeks at the end of autumn. After being informed she would be blamed for the overcrowding problem, Ms Patel phoned cabinet secretary Simon Case and said if claims weren’t retracted she would start legal action for defamation.
A source told: “Priti worked round the clock when she was home secretary to tackle this problem and erupted when she was told that her record was being criticised. Simon Case had to calm her down.” Government sources had briefed negatively about Ms Patel’s time in charge at the Home Office when the overcrowding furore flared up in October.
Although there was no public criticism from Ms Braverman, immigration minister Robert Jenrick told MPs that he had inherited the problem after “insufficient accommodation was procured over a sustained period” by the Home Office. Ms Patel is understood to deny this claim. Her allies have previously made known that she did book hotel rooms for asylum seekers while in charge of the Home Office – raising the question of why the practice was paused when Ms Braverman took over in September.
Allies of the former home secretary have defended her immigration reforms, and say Rishi Sunak’s government has failed to properly implement the Nationality and Borders Act. It comes as Ms Braverman’s team said they were optimistic it could deport migrants to Rwanda “before the summer”. The Refugee Council said Rishi Sunak and Ms Braverman’s legislation would mean as many as 45,000 children being effectively barred from obtaining refugee status in the UK in the first three years of the plan coming into effect.
Some 59 per cent of voters are in favour of banning asylum claims and detaining and deporting those arriving on small boats via illegal routes, while only 20 per cent oppose the government’s bill.
