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PEERS piled on more pressure on Home Secretary Priti Patel today to explain why she allegedly misled MPs over Covid-19 safety at Napier Barracks.
A High Court judgement found that the Home Office ignored Public Health England (PHE) advice before placing hundreds of asylum-seekers at the ex-military barracks in Folkestone, Kent.
Last week, opposition MPs called on Ms Patel to resign over allegedly misleading a Common’s committee in February when she claimed PHE advice had been followed throughout.
Today peers also demanded answers on the issue, with Lord Rosser asking: “Why did the Home Secretary tell the home affairs select committee that PHE guidance had been followed ‘in every single way’ when that was not the case?”
Responding, Home Office minister Baroness Williams of Trafford said that the department believed it had taken “reasonable steps to give effect to PHE guidance,” and it was on this basis that Ms Patel appeared before the committee.
But Lord Paddock said that there was a “significant difference” between the Home Office believing it had taken “reasonable steps” and Ms Patel’s February claims that guidance had been followed in “every single way.”