The discovery of Legionella on board the Bibby Stockholm is the latest embarrassing setback in a plan beset with controversy and delay from the very start.
Thankfully, no one on board has developed any symptoms of Legionnaires’ disease, a potentially serious form of pneumonia spread by infected water droplets.
But the timeline of this apparently routine water-testing process – and who in government knew what when – is far from clear.
Sky News understands the initial tests were carried out on Tuesday 25 July. The results came back nearly a fortnight later – on Monday 7 August, the very day the first 15 asylum seekers moved in at the start of this week.
But the Home Office say it was only yesterday – Thursday 10 August – that they were advised by the UK Health Security Agency to remove those on board, and then only the six individuals who boarded the barge yesterday. As a “further temporary precaution”, the decision was taken to remove all 39 individuals on board, which is happening today.
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‘Not right to expect four star hotels’
A Home Office source insists the “final tests” only came back to them yesterday, but that they have been working closely with the UKHSA and following its advice. The reasons for the delay in responding to the initial test results however are as yet unclear.
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Shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock has described the Bibby Stockholm as a “floating symbol of the government’s incompetence” and a “complete and utter shambles”.
Certainly the delivery of the plan to house 500 people on barge accommodation has been riven with problems from the beginning.
Local people have always objected to the location. Dorset MP Chris Loder has repeatedly raised concerns over overcrowding, with the Bibby Stockholm set to house double the number of people it was initially designed to accommodate.
The Mayor of Portland, Carralyn Parkes, who was previously a Labour parliamentary candidate, is bringing legal action over claims the Home Office didn’t get the necessary planning permission for the barge.
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Barge reminds migrant of Islamic State
The initial arrival of migrants on board was delayed by health and safety checks – with the Fire Brigades Union describing the vessel as a “potential death trap”.
While a handful more have clearly been arriving throughout the week, it’s clearly going to take time for the vessel to reach the full 500 target – clearly delayed even longer now all those already on board have been evacuated.
The Home Office insists the use of barges to house asylum seekers is a “tried and tested approach” which offers “better value for the British taxpayers” than the £6m daily cost of housing some 50,000 asylum seekers stuck on the backlog in hotels.
The use of more basic accommodation – from barges to disused military barracks – is a key plank of the government’s attempt to deter migrants from crossing the Channel in small boats in the first place. The ultimate deterrent – deporting people to Rwanda – is currently on hold, pending a final decision from the Supreme Court.
This week was meant to be the government’s “small boats week” – showcasing a series of announcements to highlight its tough policies on immigration.
But the latest fiasco on board the Bibby Stockholm is yet another indication of how far the prime minister has to go to deliver on his promise to stop the small boats.
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Norman Tebbit, the former Tory minister who served in Margaret Thatcher’s government, has died at the age of 94.
Lord Tebbit died “peacefully at home” late on Monday night, his son William confirmed.
One of Mrs Thatcher’s most loyal cabinet ministers, he was a leading political voice throughout the turbulent 1980s.
He held the posts of employment secretary, trade secretary, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Conservative party chairman before resigning as an MP in 1992 after his wife was left disabled by the Provisional IRA’s bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton.
He considered standing for the Conservative leadership after Mrs Thatcher’s resignation in 1990, but was committed to taking care of his wife.
Image: Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbit in 1987 after her election victory. Pic: PA
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch called him an “icon” in British politics and was “one of the leading exponents of the philosophy we now know as Thatcherism”.
“But to many of us it was the stoicism and courage he showed in the face of terrorism, which inspired us as he rebuilt his political career after suffering terrible injuries in the Brighton bomb, and cared selflessly for his wife Margaret, who was gravely disabled in the bombing,” she wrote on X.
“He never buckled under pressure and he never compromised. Our nation has lost one of its very best today and I speak for all the Conservative family and beyond in recognising Lord Tebbit’s enormous intellect and profound sense of duty to his country.
“May he rest in peace.”
Image: Lord Tebbit and his wife Margaret stand outside the Grand Hotel in Brighton. Pic: PA
Tory grandee David Davis told Sky News Lord Tebbit was a “great working class Tory, always ready to challenge establishment conventional wisdom for the bogus nonsense it often was”.
“He was one of Thatcher’s bravest and strongest lieutenants, and a great friend,” Sir David said.
“He had to deal with the agony that the IRA visited on him and his wife, and he did so with characteristic unflinching courage. He was a great man.”
Reform leader Nigel Farage said Lord Tebbit “gave me a lot of help in my early days as an MEP”.
He was “a great man. RIP,” he added.
Image: Lord Tebbit as employment secretary in 1983 with Mrs Thatcher. Pic: PA
Born to working-class parents in north London, he was made a life peer in 1992, where he sat until he retired in 2022.
Lord Tebbit was trade secretary when he was injured in the Provisional IRA’s bombing in Brighton during the Conservative Party conference in 1984.
Five people died in the attack and Lord Tebbit’s wife, Margaret, was left paralysed from the neck down. She died in 2020 at the age of 86.
Before entering politics, his first job, aged 16, was at the Financial Times where he had his first experience of trade unions and vowed to “break the power of the closed shop”.
He then trained as a pilot with the RAF – at one point narrowly escaping from the burning cockpit of a Meteor 8 jet – before becoming the MP for Epping in 1970 then for Chingford in 1974.
Image: Lord Tebbit during an EU debate in the House of Lords in 1997. Pic: PA
As a cabinet minister, he was responsible for legislation that weakened the powers of the trade unions and the closed shop, making him the political embodiment of the Thatcherite ideology that was in full swing.
His tough approach was put to the test when riots erupted in Brixton, south London, against the backdrop of high rates of unemployment and mistrust between the black community and the police.
He was frequently misquoted as having told the unemployed to “get on your bike”, and was often referred to as “Onyerbike” for some time afterwards.
What he actually said was he grew up in the ’30s with an unemployed father who did not riot, “he got on his bike and looked for work, and he kept looking till he found it”.