Top candidate for borders watchdog says he would commute from Finland

Published

5 months ago

February 12, 2025

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The government’s top candidate to become the chief of the borders and immigration watchdog has told MPs he lives in Finland and commutes to the UK when he needs to.

John Tuckett, who has worked as the immigration services commissioner for six years, was questioned by the Home Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday ahead of the appointment of the next independent chief inspector of borders and immigration (ICIBI).

Asked if he lives in commuting distance from the London office, he replied: “No I don’t, I have a family home in Finland and I come across to this country whenever I need to.”

When MPs put it to him that he would expect to inspect the UK’s borders without being a resident here, he added: “I work in UK and I would be in the UK, I’m resident in Finland.”

Mr Tuckett told the committee he pays for travel and accommodation himself and “always have done”.

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He also said he would be fine to work five days in the office if needed, adding: “I have done this kind of work before, and when I was asked this question at my interview, I said, I think that my judgment is you need time when you’re available for ministers, visits, all the things where you need to do face to face.

“You also need time where you can think, sit back, write, because you don’t write a report, you know, in 10 spare minutes in between two major appointments. So I think there’s a 60-40, split between for the chief inspector this is.!

Mr Tuckett was announced as the preferred applicant for the chief inspector position by the Home Office in January, with previous experience as the chief executive of the Marine Management Organisation and working for the Archbishop of York.

Announcing the recommendation of Mr Tuckett for the role, migration minister Seema Malhotra said: “His track record of delivering complex change programmes across government, combined with his current role as immigration services commissioner, makes him ideally suited to take on this crucial independent oversight role at an important time for our border security.”

If Mr Tuckett is confirmed as the next inspector, he will replace interim watchdog boss David Bolt – who has served since June last year.

Mr Bolt’s appointment came after the previous borders watchdog David Neal was sacked in February last year amid claims he breached the terms of his appointment.

He later voiced his frustrations of the time taken for his reports to be published, and said there were “very few” ways of speaking out about his concerns on security.

Politics

Crypto’s path to legitimacy runs through the CARF regulation

Published

4 hours ago

July 5, 2025

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Crypto’s path to legitimacy runs through the CARF regulation

The CARF regulation, which brings crypto under global tax reporting standards akin to traditional finance, marks a crucial turning point.

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Tokenized equity still in regulatory grey zone — Attorneys

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4 hours ago

July 5, 2025

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Tokenized equity still in regulatory grey zone — Attorneys

The nascent real-world tokenized assets track prices but do not provide investors the same legal rights as holding the underlying instruments.

Politics

Rachel Reeves hints at tax rises in autumn budget after welfare bill U-turn

Published

10 hours ago

July 5, 2025

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Rachel Reeves hints at tax rises in autumn budget after welfare bill U-turn

Rachel Reeves has hinted that taxes are likely to be raised this autumn after a major U-turn on the government’s controversial welfare bill.

Sir Keir Starmer’s Universal Credit and Personal Independent Payment Bill passed through the House of Commons on Tuesday after multiple concessions and threats of a major rebellion.

MPs ended up voting for only one part of the plan: a cut to universal credit (UC) sickness benefits for new claimants from £97 a week to £50 from 2026/7.

Initially aimed at saving £5.5bn, it now leaves the government with an estimated £5.5bn black hole – close to breaching Ms Reeves’s fiscal rules set out last year.

In an interview with The Guardian, the chancellor did not rule out tax rises later in the year, saying there were “costs” to watering down the welfare bill.

“I’m not going to [rule out tax rises], because it would be irresponsible for a chancellor to do that,” Ms Reeves told the outlet.

“We took the decisions last year to draw a line under unfunded commitments and economic mismanagement.

“So we’ll never have to do something like that again. But there are costs to what happened.”

Meanwhile, The Times reported that, ahead of the Commons vote on the welfare bill, Ms Reeves told cabinet ministers the decision to offer concessions would mean taxes would have to be raised.

The outlet reported that the chancellor said the tax rises would be smaller than those announced in the 2024 budget, but that she is expected to have to raise tens of billions more.

It comes after Ms Reeves said she was “totally” up to continuing as chancellor after appearing tearful at Prime Minister’s Questions.

Criticising Sir Keir for the U-turns on benefit reform during PMQs, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said the chancellor looked “absolutely miserable”, and questioned whether she would remain in post until the next election.

Sir Keir did not explicitly say that she would, and Ms Badenoch interjected to say: “How awful for the chancellor that he couldn’t confirm that she would stay in place.”

In her first comments after the incident, Ms Reeves said she was having a “tough day” before adding: “People saw I was upset, but that was yesterday.

“Today’s a new day and I’m just cracking on with the job.”

Sir Keir also told Sky News’ political editor Beth Rigby on Thursday that he “didn’t appreciate” that Ms Reeves was crying in the Commons.

“In PMQs, it is bang, bang, bang,” he said. “That’s what it was yesterday.

“And therefore, I was probably the last to appreciate anything else going on in the chamber, and that’s just a straightforward human explanation, common sense explanation.”