Johnson may be called before inquiry into asylum scandal

Former prime ministers and other politicians could be called to give evidence into a scandal at a processing centre for small boat arrivals, according to a memo disclosed to the Guardian after a legal challenge.

- Diane Taylor

The inquiry into Manston, an ex-military base in Kent, "will probably be reputationally damaging for the Home Office", the note said.

Those listed in the memo include Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak and the former home secretaries Priti Patel, Grant Shapps and Suella Braverman.

Manston started accepting asylum seekers in February 2022 but by the summer of that year had become completely overwhelmed.

It was taking in 4,000 people at a site built to accommodate 1,600.

Poor conditions led to outbreaks of scabies and diphtheria.

Hussein Haseeb Ahmed, a 31-year-old man from Iraq, died after contracting the latter disease in November 2022.

At the beginning of 2024 the then home secretary, James Cleverly, agreed to hold a public inquiry into what had gone wrong at Manston in the second half of 2022.

But when Yvette Cooper took the Home Office brief last July she decided to scale it back to a non-statutory inquiry, which would not be able to compel former ministers or prime ministers to give evidence.

Judicial review proceedings were launched to challenge her decision.

During the course of these proceedings in November 2024, reference was made in open court to an information note to Cooper alerting her to the key issues at Manston.