Home Office source denies Home Secretary Suella Braverman ignored legal advice on Manston migrant centre
A Home Office source has told me the situation at Manston has been a “ticking time bomb” and that the set up there was not designed for people to spend more than a short period of time there.
The site has been designed to accommodate people once they have been taken off boats and processed through Western Jet Foil, where they are given basic care.
Those people are then only meant to stay a maximum of 24 to 48 hours before being sent to temporary accommodation.
“The conditions are austere but acceptable, but for people staying much longer than that, the conditions are unpleasant.”
The source told me that Suella Braverman failed to sign off accommodation and that decision not to take on extra accommodation is going to be potentially very difficult for the home secretary.
Two Home Office sources told me that the decision is likely to face a judicial review because the law requires that people are held in these conditions for 24 to 48 hours only, when in reality people are being held there for weeks at a time.
The question for the home secretary will be whether she ignored official advice and did not sign off on accommodation when she should have done.
Two sources tell me that they think this is what has happened. However, another Home Office source has told me this is “categorically untrue”.
The Home Office figure added: “We do not comment on legal advice – but we are clear she has not ignored any legal advice and has taken steps to find alternative accommodation for those in Manston.”
A fourth source told me that the home secretary had been reluctant to sign off certain accommodation, but this was because she, alongside local MPs and councillors, deemed it inappropriate for particular areas of the country.
“Many people were being put into hotels in what are typically tourist areas, which in turn prompted kick back from local areas and politicians because of concerns around damaging local economies by taking tourist business away.”
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Video from inside migrant centre
I’m told that Grant Shapps, who served as home secretary for just a few days between Ms Braverman’s resignation and reappointment, and Immigration Minister Robert Jenrick have signed off hotels in recent days to alleviate the overcrowding- with about 4,000 people currently being housed in a facility for 1,500.
One source told me the overcrowding could be resolved in a week or so, depending on the weather and the number of people trying to make the crossing.
Read more: Why is the home secretary facing questions over migration centres?
As for the home secretary, it is far from clear whether she can survive this scandal and while the prime minister has publicly said he has full confidence in her, one ally suggested that Rishi Sunak might be comfortable in letting Ms Braverman fall on her sword over this.
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‘Breach of humane conditions’ at Manston
Some colleagues are circling around the home secretary following her controversial re-appointment.
One former cabinet minister who sat around the top table with her told me: “She’s not up to it. She relies on others out of government to tell her what to do. She’s not good enough.”
Another former minister told me: “He should never have re-appointed her in the first place.”
However, others have come forward to back her. Lord Frost, the former Brexit minister, said on Monday, Ms Braverman “should now be allowed to get on with the job” and said the “continued pursuit of the home sec over micro-details by Labour & some of the media looks unreasonable, even obsessional”.
“Super high-IQ revolutionaries” who are willing to work 80+ hours a week are being urged to join Elon Musk’s new cost-cutting department in Donald Trump’s incoming US government.
The X and Tesla owner will co-lead the Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
And in a post on X, the official DOGE account put out a call to arms for people to sign up and help “dismantle government bureaucracy”.
The post said: “We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE.
“We don’t need more part-time idea generators.
“We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting.
“If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.”
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Elon Musk speaking at an event held at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Pic: AP Photo/Alex Brandon
In a reply to an interested party, Mr Musk suggested the lucky applicants would be working for free.
“Indeed, this will be tedious work, make lost of enemies & compensation is zero,” the world’s richest man wrote.
“What a great deal!”
When announcing the new department, President-elect Donald Trump said Mr Musk and Mr Ramaswamy “will pave the way for my administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure federal agencies”.
Mr Musk has previously made clear his desire to see cuts to “government waste” and in a post on his X platform suggested he could axe as many as three-quarters of the more than 400 federal departments in the US, writing: “99 is enough.”
At least 10 people have been killed after a fire broke out at a retirement home in northern Spain in the early hours of this morning, officials have said.
A further two people were seriously injured in the blaze at the residence in the town of Villafranca de Ebro in Zaragoza, according to the Spanish news website Diario Sur.
Two people remain in a critical condition following the blaze. Pic: AP
They remain in a critical condition, while several others received treatment for smoke inhalation.
Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at the residence – the Jardines de Villafranca – at 5am (4am UK time) on Friday.
Several residents were treated for smoke inhalation. Pic: AP
Those who were killed in the fire died from smoke inhalation, Spanish newspaper Heraldo reported.
The residence is home to 82 elderly residents.
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The blaze started in one of the rooms, Fernando Beltran, the national government’s top official in the region, told reporters.
All of the victims were elderly residents, he added.
Relatives wait for news outside the care home. Pic: AP
Fire crews, paramedics and police officers remain on site, said a spokesperson for the regional government of Aragon who confirmed the fatalities.
It took firefighters several hours to extinguish the blaze, they said.
The cause of the fire is unknown and is being investigated.
At least 10 people have been killed after a fire broke out at a retirement home in northern Spain in the early hours of this morning, officials have said.
A further two people were seriously injured in the blaze at the residence in the town of Villafranca de Ebro in Zaragoza, according to the Spanish news website Diario Sur.
Two people remain in a critical condition following the blaze. Pic: AP
They remain in a critical condition, while several others received treatment for smoke inhalation.
Firefighters were alerted to the blaze at the residence – the Jardines de Villafranca – at 5am (4am UK time) on Friday.
Several residents were treated for smoke inhalation. Pic: AP
Those who were killed in the fire died from smoke inhalation, Spanish newspaper Heraldo reported.
The residence is home to 82 elderly residents.
Read more from Sky News:
Mass displacement in Gaza – people unsure where to go
Donald Trump picks vaccine sceptic as health secretary
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The blaze started in one of the rooms, Fernando Beltran, the national government’s top official in the region, told reporters.
All of the victims were elderly residents, he added.
Relatives wait for news outside the care home. Pic: AP
Fire crews, paramedics and police officers remain on site, said a spokesperson for the regional government of Aragon who confirmed the fatalities.
It took firefighters several hours to extinguish the blaze, they said.
The cause of the fire is unknown and is being investigated.
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