The outgoing head of the UK Border Force has triggered a political row by describing ‘bloody borders’ as ‘just such a pain in the bloody a***’.
Paul Lincoln’s incendiary remarks – made in a speech to mark his departure as director general of the Border Force – comes amid growing anger among Boris Johnson’s backbenchers over the migrant crisis.
The daily average of 1,185 asylum seekers who crossed the English Channel by small boats last week was a record. This year’s crossing from France has seen more than 235,000 people, an increase of 8404 for 2020.
Mr Lincoln, who left his position last month as part of a shake-up by Home Secretary Priti Patel, ended his speech by quoting lines from rock star Shane MacGowan, of The Pogues, saying: ‘People are talking about immigration, emigration and the rest of the bloody thing. It’s all bloody crap.’
The speech by Paul Lincoln, pictured during a media briefing in Downing Street in May this year, concluded: ‘We’re all human beings, we’re all mammals, we’re all rocks, plants, rivers. Bloody borders are just such a pain in the bloody a***.’
The speech, which has been obtained by The Mail on Sunday, concluded: ‘We’re all human beings, we’re all mammals, we’re all rocks, plants, rivers. Bloody borders are just such a pain in the bloody a***.’
Yesterday night, the Home Office refused to make any comment. A source confirmed that Mr Lincoln had made the remarks but declined to explain the context, saying only: ‘It was a small part of a much wider speech to friends and colleagues.’
However, a senior Government source said: ‘We have held more meetings about the small boats than any issue other than Covid, but it just seems as if we are always banging our head against the wall. Perhaps this explains why’.
Mr Lincoln left his £135,000-a-year post last month amid mounting criticism of the Border Force’s handling of the Channel migrant crisis and the long queues endured by travellers at Heathrow.
In response to increasing frustration at Government’s inability to stop the migration of migrants, he was among four top civil servants who headed immigration enforcement.
A spokesman said at the time Mr Lincoln had made the decision to depart, and described him as a ‘hugely respected leader’ who had notched up ‘major achievements’.
Whitehall is concerned that migrants who are currently entering the EU from Belarus will continue to enter the Channel, causing further instability.
The crisis has stoked growing tensions between Tory MPs over the direction of the Government, especially from ‘Red Wall’ MPs who handed Mr Johnson his majority in 2019 by seizing lifelong Labour seats in the North and Midlands.
Many are also furious at Mr Johnson’s ‘disastrous’ handling of the Owen Paterson sleaze row, and at being whipped to support the doomed effort to spare him from censure. The affair reignited a storm over Tory MPs’ lucrative second jobs and has given Labour its first sizeable poll lead in a year.
RLNI Dover lifeboat catches up with migrants on record crossing of the Nile on November 11.
Yesterday’s Savanta ComRes poll put Labour at 40% and the Tories at 34%. This is a shift from the three-point Tory lead, to six points Labour in a matter of weeks.
Last night, one Red Wall Tory MP, Rother Valley’s Alexander Stafford, said the migrants crisis was more important for most voters than the COP26 climate change summit in Glasgow, which ended yesterday. The South Yorkshire MP said: ‘Apart from Covid, dealing with the migrant crisis is the No 1 priority for my constituents. The Government must put relentless focus on sorting out the mess going on in the Channel.’
Mr Stafford, the first Tory to represent the former mining community for more than 100 years, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘People in my area – not just Tory voters – see the migrant crisis as hugely important. They voted heavily here to leave the EU and a key part of that was to regain control of our borders.’
‘We are paying France £54 million to police that border but clearly, the French and the EU are reneging on their side of the bargain. We should suspend all further negotiations with the EU – including the Northern Ireland talks – until the French start stopping migrants.’
Another Red Wall MP warned the Prime Minister that his handling of the crisis could define the future of his Government – ‘more than the COP climate talks, more than sleaze, more than anything else’ – and could cost Mr Johnson victory at the next General Election.
After being picked up by the English Channel, another group of 40 migrants was brought to Dungeness Lifeboat Station. This photo was taken on November 9, 2009.
He added the Prime Minister had to show that the UK was ‘not like some sort of hapless giant that could be slapped around’, with no real control of its own borders.
He said: ‘We’re hosting this huge world climate conference but we can’t stop people crossing 25 miles of water in a rubber dinghy.’
Johnson appears to have recognized the magnitude of the outrage and launched a late charm offensive inviting Tory MPs to drink in Downing Street.
But angry ‘Red Wallers’ said privately it would take more than ‘a glass of warm white wine in No 10’ to appease them.
Last night, the PM faced a parliamentary inquiry into his Government’s ‘lack of regard’ for scrutiny by the Commons. Lib Dem chief whip Wendy Chamberlain wrote to the Commons’ privileges committee to demand a formal inquiry.