Tory MP piles pressure on Suella Braverman over ‘wholly unacceptable’ conditions at Manston immigration centre

Suella Braverman is coming under heavy scrutiny for her handling of worsening conditions at the Manston asylum processing centre in Kent, which is severely overcrowded.

The current situation in the migrant centre is a “breach of humane conditions”, a local Tory MP has said as he spoke of his frustration at the situation.

Sir Roger Gale, an outspoken Tory backbencher who is often critical of the Government, said that around five weeks ago Manston was “working as it was intended” but it was “now broken and it’s got to be mended fast”.

He told Sky News: “There are now 4,000 people in a facility that was designed to hold 1,500. That is wholly unacceptable.”

The MP added: “These circumstances I believe now, were a problem made in the Home Office.”

Sir Roger told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme he was told that the Home Office was finding it very difficult to secure hotel accommodation, adding that he now understands that this was a policy issue and a decision was taken not to book additional hotel space.

The Manston immigration short-term holding facility located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent. (Photo: PA)

“That’s like driving a car down a motorway, seeing the motorway clear ahead, then there’s a car crash, and then suddenly there’s a five mile tailback.

“The car crash was the decision not to book more hotel space,” he said.

According to reports, the squalid conditions inside the centre have led to outbreaks of diphtheria and scabies, leading an immigration watchdog to say that he was left “speechless” by what he saw.

Manston was originally meant to hold between 1,000 and 1,600 people but there are currently more than 4,000 people being kept at the facility.

The situation has only intensified after 700 people were moved from a Dover migrant centre that was firebombed on Sunday.

The Home Secretary is being criticised as she allegedly failed to heed legal advice that migrants were being detained at the facility for unlawfully long periods, the Sunday Times reported.

Suella Braverman was reappointed to the post by new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak just six days after she was forced out (Photo :JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)

She is also understood to have blocked migrants from being moved into hotels from Manston, which is supposed to be a temporary processing facility where people stay no longer than a few hours.

Sir Roger called for an end to “dog-whistle” politics and instead for actionable solutions.

Asked if Ms Braverman was the right person to be leading the Home Office, Sir Roger said he was not going to “point fingers”, but added: “I do believe, whoever is responsible, either the previous Home Secretary or this one, has to be held to account because a bad decision was taken and it has led to what I would regard as a breach of humane conditions.”

The chief inspector of borders and immigration, David Neal, told MPs last week that he was shocked by the “wretched conditions” in the centre.

Claire Pearsall, a former Tory adviser to ex-immigration minister Caroline Nokes, said the Home Secretary was unlikely to survive the week as a result of the revelations.

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It comes as the Home Secretary, who was reappointed to the post by new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak just six days after she was forced out, continues to face questions about her response to a security breach.

She was found to have emailed highly sensitive Government information from her personal account to the wrong person – amounting to two breaches of the ministerial code.

Ms Braverman is facing questions over her version of events that led to her resignation.

At the time, she insisted she had “rapidly” informed officials of her “honest mistake” but an email seen by the BBC showed that she asked the recipient to “ignore and delete” the message and then took severalhours to alert the Cabinet Secretary.

The Home Office dismissed as “completely baseless” claims that Ms Braverman had ignored advice about the situation at Manston.