THE government dropped its pushback policy after the Ministry of Defence determined that the tactic would be a “breach of the saving life at sea convention,” it was revealed today.

The widely condemned policy to turn around small boats in the Channel, floated by Home Secretary Priti Patel earlier this year, was abandoned in April — but few details were given as to why it was dropped.

On Tuesday, Armed Forces Minister James Heappey shed light on the reason behind the decision, telling MPs that the MoD had concluded through trials that conditions in the English Channel would have made the tactic “operationally unviable.”

“Our view, having been involved with the trials and having some expertise around those waters, was that it would be a breach of the saving life at sea convention to consciously seek to align with another vessel in an international shipping lane,” he told the defence committee. 

“When people heard the evidence from the trials and the professional judgement of the mariners within the Royal Navy, we won the argument and … the idea was dropped.” 

The MoD had been asked to explore the option of using pushback tactics in the Channel, he said, which included exercises using different techniques off Weymouth.

In another remarkable admission, Mr Heappey revealed that the PM and Ms Patel had looked at Greece as an example of where “sea interdictions” had “successfully” been achieved when considering deploying the policy in the Channel. 

This is likely to cause friction with the Greek government which has repeatedly denied allegations of pushbacks of asylum-seekers at the border with Turkey, despite abundant evidence that it routinely and violently forces refugees back over the border, in contravention of international law. 

Asylum-seekers have spoken of being violently assaulted by Greek border forces, before being sent back to Turkey, with abuses widely documented by human rights groups.  

The government dropped its pushback policy just days before legal action was due to be heard claiming the tactic was unlawful. 

Prior to this, Ms Patel had insisted that the policy would go ahead and had refused to rule out the use of the Navy in turning around small boats back to France, triggering a public spat with the MoD, which publicly rebuked her comments, saying it would not do it.

Responding to Mr Heappey's evidence to the select committee, the PCS union - one of the four organisations which had challenged the Home Office policy - said it was "pleasing to finally have a minister of state admit that PCS and our members were right all along."

"We said from the outset that this manoeuvre was a danger to life and limb," a union spokesperson said.

"We said from the outset that it was illegal. The government pressed on regardless for over nine months with its plans despite our representations, thereby ignoring the expertise of their own staff.

“Having defended the indefensible for so long, they abandoned the policy just a week before its legality was due to be tested in High Court proceedings brought by PCS. We believe that they did so simply because they knew they were going to lose."