Tory fury is mounting at Suella Braverman for branding refugees an “invasion” as a damning report demanded she “get a grip” of a holding centre.
The Home Secretary is accused of fuelling “extremists” after she refused to accept blame for conditions at the disused Manston airport in Kent.
The tent city is holding around 4,000 migrants despite a stated capacity of 1,600. Despite a 24-hour time limit, some are said to have been there for a month. There are reports of diphtheria and scabies.
The crisis worsened after people were moved to Manston from a holding centre in Dover when it was firebombed.
But Ms Braverman - who lashed out as she battled to save her job over a security breach - was accused of "whipping up hate" after she vowed to stop “the invasion on our southern coast".
With the Government spending £6.8 million a day putting up migrants in hotels - at an average cost of £150 per person per night - she insisted she was right to order a review of the way the system was working.
But immigration minister Robert Jenrick distanced himself from his boss’s comments today, telling Sky News: “Well, in a job like mine you have to choose your words very carefully.
“And I would never demonise people coming to this country in pursuit of a better life."
Pressed twice again Mr Jenrick did not outright condemn her, saying: “The scale of the challenge we’re facing is very very significant.
"I think invasion is a way of describing the sheer scale of the challenge, that is what Suella Braverman was trying to express."
But the centre’s local Tory MP Sir Roger Gale told the Times: “I fear that there is a very great danger with her inflammatory language.
“People need to use their language carefully because extremists latch on to those words.”
An anonymous former Tory Home Office minister went even further, telling The Times: “It just shows what a thug she is.
“She’s facile, totally uncompassionate and insincere, hamming it up and that’s the reputation she has now.
“The ERG [the right-wing Brexiteer European Research Group] is abandoning her, it’s only the dinosaurs left defending her now.”
Even allies of hardline former Home Secretary Priti Patel told The Times Ms Braverman had brought the Home Office into disrepute and described the language as “horrific”.
It came as a watchdog called on the Home Office to "get a grip" on the problems at the Manston migrant processing centre.
Chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor said the government department and its contractors must speed up the processing of migrants and let them leave Manston “as quickly as possible".
He published the findings of an inspection, carried out at the facility in July, which warned serious challenges remain for migrants crossing the Channel and arriving in Kent.
Mr Taylor told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The Home Office and contractors need to get a grip.
“They need to speed up the processing of migrants. They need to make suitable provisions so people can be moved off site as quickly as possible and housed in humane and decent conditions."
It is the first time the watchdog, which examines the conditions of prisons and other detention facilities, has inspected Manston - which opened in January - and two other migrant processing centres.
Manston, at a disused airfield near Ramsgate, is supposed to be a short-term holding facility where immigration documents are issued and some migrants begin the asylum screening process.
They are only meant to stay for a maximum of 24 hours. While there is food, water, showers and toilets, the prisons watchdog said there are no beds or access to fresh air or exercise.
Mr Jenrick today admitted people have been there for more than 24 hours.
He told Sky News: “There are people sleeping on the floor on camping mats. This is not a satisafctory situation”.
When migrants initially arrive in Kent after crossing the Channel from Calais, they are taken to sites at Western Jet Foil in Dover and Lydd Airport in Romney Marsh for health checks. The Lydd Airport site was unoccupied at the time of the inspection.
In the watchdog's findings, published on Tuesday, inspectors highlighted "failings" in procedures at Manston which "undermine the resilience of the centre for dealing with increasing volumes of detainees".
But they also found the accommodation was suitable for short-term detention and noted efforts by staff to "create a calm and even welcoming atmosphere".
Manston was described as having a "good amount" of accommodation available but, at the time of the inspection, "much of it was out of use because there were not enough staff".
Further "signs of strain" included "exhausted detainees" sleeping on the floor, including some who had been waiting more than 30 hours to be processed.
The prisons watchdog also found:
- Victims of trafficking, people with disabilities and severe mental health problems and other vulnerable detainees were "not always assessed or recorded appropriately", with some not identified as "adults at risk".
- The inspection raised concerns over the welfare and dignity of detainees. Some were not allowed to use mobile phones to let their families know they were safe and, in parts of the site, others were "inexplicably" not allowed to close toilet doors fully.
- Translation services were not always used to make sure detainees understood what was happening.
Mr Taylor said the inspection revealed a number of "risks" linked to the facilities and that since then, information from "a number of credible sources", including other watchdogs, suggested the current situation has "significantly deteriorated".
As a result, he is planning a "swift return" to Manston for another inspection when he will "expect to see substantial improvements".
"In the meantime, the Home Office and its contractors need to get a grip and urgently act on the findings of this report to make sure all detainees are held in safe, decent and humane conditions," he said.
A Home Office spokesman said: "We welcome the report's finding that there have been considerable improvements to the infrastructure and processes in place to accommodate record numbers of people arriving in the UK illegally via small boats.
"As a result of these numbers, our asylum system has been put under incredible strain, but we recognise there is more to do to provide alternative accommodation for people arriving in the UK. We continue to work hard to resolve the current pressures at Manston as an urgent priority.
"Manston remains resourced and equipped to process migrants securely, and we will provide alternative accommodation as soon as possible."
