The policy divides left and right, with a new Find Out Now poll showing it is extremely popular with Conservative and outgoing voters, while only one in 10 Labor voters support it.
It also caused deep concern in Whitehall, where government officials could take down tools and leave instead of applying them. An official working outside the Home Office told The Telegraph that Rwanda’s plan “takes the” hostile environment “to a whole new level.”
Dave Penman, the FDA’s 19,000-member union secretary general, warned that officials could request a transfer from the Department of the Interior or leave the civil service altogether instead of pursuing the policy.
“As a civil servant, your choice is either to implement government policy or to resign,” he said. “The interior ministry is often the place where the most controversial policies take place, but people will say that the border has been crossed.
“Their choice will be either to agree to this or to leave the Home Office. It will be the case that many people will leave either the department or the civil service.”
The Union of Public and Commercial Services (PCS), the largest civil service with nearly 180,000 members, said that “trying to claim that this is something other than completely inhuman is pure hypocrisy.”
The PCS, which represents the majority of border guards, said earlier this year that it would go on strike over Ms Patel’s “morally reprehensible” plans to “repel” small boats in the English Channel.
Sources from the Ministry of the Interior confirmed that the Minister of the Interior had issued a ministerial instruction regarding the partnership with Rwanda due to the uncertainty that the plans offered good value for money for the taxpayer.
However, Ms Patel’s friends have dismissed their concerns, saying government officials have not resigned over previous scandals such as Windrush.
Add Comment