Charles Clarke on the brink

Charles Clarke, pictured yesterday, as the scandal broke.

26 April 2006 11:15

Pressure was today mounting on Home Secretary and city MP Charles Clarke to quit after the Home Office failed to consider deporting more than 1,000 foreign offenders when they were freed from jail.

Mr Clarke shouldered responsibility for the blunder which saw 1,023 overseas criminals, including murderers, rapists and paedophiles, freed since 1999.

Calls for Norwich South MP Mr Clarke to resign intensified this morning as it emerged nearly 300 more prisoners were released after he was first told about the mistake.

Speaking today, Mr Clarke said he had offered his resignation to Prime Minister Tony Blair in talks at Downing Street, but his offer was rejected.

Downing Street has insisted the Home Secretary has Mr Blair's “full confidence”.

The Home Secretary told BBC Radio 4's Today programme he had told the Prime Minister before Christmas of the release of criminals.

Asked whether he had offered to resign, he said: “Yes I did. I told him I was prepared to resign if he thought it was right. He said he didn't think it was right.”

But today he said he was determined to stay on to correct the mistakes.

He said: “I think the responsibility I have - and that anyone in public life has - is to take responsibility. I've done that and will use that responsibility to put the matter straight.

“The whole point of any career in politics is to change things for the better, and that's what I am going to do to the best of my ability.”

The extent of the problem only emerged after persistent questioning by South Norfolk MP Conservative Richard Bacon, who sits on the Public Accounts Committee.

He said: “This appears to illustrate a kind of administrative chaos that is hard to credit.

“It is down to chaos and lack of communication, but it certainly isn't down to lack of people.

“The Immigration and Nationality Directorate has got 14,500 staff, 540 of whom work in the HR department. They just simply have got to use the resources they've got available and talk to each other.”

Speaking today, Norwich North MP Ian Gibson said: “The whole department has to bear responsibility.

“It's obviously very serious when we have these kinds of people with the records that we know they have wandering round the country somewhere. He's obviously got a problem in holding his department together - it's the old right hand not knowing what the left hand is doing.”

The Home Office has so far tracked down just 107 of the prisoners who should have faced deportation and has launched an urgent hunt to find the rest.

Immigration Minister Tony McNulty and former home secretary David Blunkett both warned “heads could roll” once the dust had settled.

Mr Clarke acknowledged he did not know whether any of the criminals released had gone on to be arrested for further crimes.

Among the 1,023 foreign criminals were three murderers, nine rapists and five paedophiles. Seven had served time for other sex offences, 57 for violent offences and two for manslaughter. There were 41 burglars, 20 drug smugglers, 54 convicted of assault and 27 of indecent assault. A further 28 had been convicted of immigration offences, including people trafficking. The Home Office admitted it did not know the full details of the offences committed by more than 100 of the prisoners, and Mr Clarke said he could not promise all 1,023 would be traced.

Mr Blair's official spokesman insisted Mr Clarke could not be held responsible for a “breakdown in communications” between the Prison Service and the Immigration and Nationality Directorate (IND) that led to the failures.

Former Home Secretary David Blunkett, who twice left the cabinet acrimoniously, said he found the failures “astonishing” as the law had been tightened up in the Criminal Justice Act 2003.

He said: “My view is that heads should roll. There are too many people in the system who simply don't care. I support Charles Clarke in getting to the bottom of this.”

Norman Brennan, director of the Victims of Crime Trust, said: “The Government should trace the 916 as a matter of urgency and consider immediate deportation of them and the British public wouldn't expect anything less.

“It's a scandalous situation and I think it just goes to show how the Criminal Justice System is in crisis from top to bottom. You've got to ask yourself is there anything good about the CJS. How many things have to go wrong with the CJS before somebody takes responsibility? In a company, if a shareholder loses confidence in the management they would change the top tier management.”

Antony Little, Conservative spokesman for Norwich South, who challenged Mr Clarke for his parliamentary seat in 2005, said: “I am a great believer in individual ministerial responsibility. It is time one of Blair's men did the decent thing and resigned over a crisis like this. You cannot be the Home Secretary who put 1,000 criminals on to the streets of Britain and stay in office.”

The Charles Clarke profile:

*Born: London September 21, 1950.

*Married to Carol in 1984. Two children.

*Educated at Highgate School, London

*BA Maths and Economics, King's College Cambridge University.

*Former president of the National Union of Students.

*Councillor at London Borough of Hackney where he was chair of the housing committee and vice chair of economic development between 1980 and 1986.

*Worked as a researcher and then Chief of Staff to former Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock from 1981 to 1992.

*From 1992 to 1997 Mr Clarke - chief executive of Quality Public Affairs, a public affairs management consultancy, before his election as MP for Norwich South.

*Mr Clarke was made Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for School Standards in July 1998.

*Minister of State at the Home Office from July 1999 and became Minister without Portfolio and Labour Party Chair in July 2001.

*Mr Clarke was appointed Secretary of State for Education and Skills in October 2002 and became Home Secretary in December 2004.

What do you think?

Norwich Union worker Alison Monsey, 35, who lives in the city centre, said: “There needs to be more visibility about what is happening. The important thing to know is how it happened, and make sure it does not happen again.”

Fellow Norwich Union worker Julie Fryatt, 42, said: “I don't think he should resign, but he needs to sort it out. Calling for people to resign is terrible these days.”

Brian Martin, 70, who lives in Terrace Walk, Norwich, said: “I'm a Labour supporter but I think he should resign. It's an appalling situation.

“A lot of these crimes are very serious. He has accepted responsibility for it, and taking responsibility used to be mean that you resigned and fell on your sword, but not any more, it seems.”

Kerenza Goreham, 34, from Tacolneston, said: “I think he definitely should resign. But I don't think he will.”

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