Home Office forced to abandon video blaming 'activist lawyers' for deportation delays after furious row

The Home Office has been forced to abandon a video which accused “activist lawyers” of trying to disrupt the asylum system after a furious backlash.

The short clip, posted on the Home Office Twitter account on Wednesday, was roundly condemned for its attack on solicitors who provide legal advice to migrants.

Britain’s top legal bodies condemned it as “divisive and deceptive”, while a university professor lodged a complaint with the Government department’s most senior civil servant.

The film, viewed 1.5 million times, featured an animated image of planes deporting migrants from the UK, behind text stating that current regulations on returning people to other countries were “rigid and open to abuse”.

Against a backdrop of calm music, it claimed this allowed “activist lawyers to delay and disrupt returns”, adding the UK “will soon no longer be bound by EU laws and can negotiate our own return arrangements”.

Jonathan Portes, a professor of economics at King’s College London, said he complained to top Home Office mandarin, Permanent Secretary Matthew Rycroft.

He said he was told in response: “I agree the phrase you quote should not have been used on an official government channel.

“I have made clear to the team this post should not be used again from Home Office accounts or anywhere else by civil servants.”

A Home Office spokeswoman confirmed the response was accurate and that officials would no longer be using the video or the phrases it included.

But officials would not be deleting the tweet containing the video, she added.

The department refused to comment further or say which team compiled the video and who signed it off for publication.

Numerous legal professionals rebuked the video on Thursday, with The Law Society, the independent professional body for solicitors in England and Wales, warning that such “attacks on the integrity” of the legal profession were “misleading and dangerous”.

Meanwhile, the Immigration Law Practitioners’ Association said the video had “no basis in fact”.

Amanda Pinto QC, chairman of the Bar Council, said lawyers were “merely doing their jobs”, adding: “We strongly condemn the use of divisive and deceptive language that undermines the rule of law and those working to uphold it.”

It comes as 12 migrants were deported by the Home Office to Europe on a flight on Wednesday.

But another flight scheduled for Thursday had to be halted due to a flurry of last-minute legal challenges, the Home Office said.

More than 5,000 migrants have crossed to the UK in small boats so far in 2020, analysis by the PA news agency shows.

At least 26 migrants in three boats made it to the UK across the Channel aboard small boats on Thursday saying they were from Sudan, according to the Home Office.

The spokesman for Justice Secretary Robert Buckland declined to comment and Ms Patel’s spokesman was not available to discuss the matter.

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