Suella Braverman can't be blamed for housing migrants on barge with Legionella, ConservativeHome editor says
14 August 2023, 19:02 | Updated: 14 August 2023, 19:09
'Unwise' for Tories to leave ECHR before next election, Conservative Home editor says
The Home Office is so "vast" the Bibby Stockhom Legionella test likely didn't "filter through" to key decision makers, ConservativeHome's Henry Hill argues.
Last week the 39 migrants housed on the Bibby Stockholm barge, docked in Portland, were removed after legionella bacteria was detected in the water supply.
It has since been reported that contractors hired by the government to staff the Bibby Stockholm were told about legionella on board the day the first migrants moved in.
Speaking to the Deputy Editor of the right-wing blog ConservativeHome, Henry Hill, Tom Swarbrick asked what the failures of the Bibby Stockholm would mean for the Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
"It’s obviously politically difficult for Suella, but in in her defence, the home secretary in successive Conservative governments has been put in an impossible position," Mr Hill began.
"One because the Home Office is simply too big. It's a vast department with a tiny ministerial team at the top. It's very difficult for them to be across everything.
"But two because successive Prime Ministers have outsourced to the Home Office the job of being bad cop, the job of trying to bring immigration down legal and illegal whilst no other part of government is really on board with that."
Henry Hill maintained that the Home Secretary is taking on a job that is "very difficult" and therefore "whatever you think of Suella Braverman, it is not entirely her fault".
Tom challenged this: "It is someone in the Home Office's fault, though, no? That a legionella test was being done, the results perhaps confirmed as legionella being present on the same day that people went into the boat."
Mr Hill agreed, "It's someone in the Home Office’s fault" but "it's very hard to know, one, who that was, and two, for that information to have filtered through to the key decision makers".
