Rishi Sunak’s “small boats week” has ended in humiliation for the government as it was forced to evacuate the Bibby Stockholm migrant barge following the discovery of dangerous legionella bacteria.
The 39 asylum seekers were moved off the vessel in Portland, Dorset after the disease - a serious type of pneumonia - was found in the water supply, just days after the first migrants arrived on board.
One former Tory minister called for Suella Braverman to be sacked for “losing control” of the Channel crisis, while another joked: “Is the government cursed?”
As tests continued on Friday, all those on board were moved to government hotels, increasing the cost of the already extortionate barge project that the prime minister claimed would reduce hotel use.
The evacuation started hours after Home Office figures revealed more than 100,000 people had arrived in the UK on smalls boats since 2018, after 755 arrived on Thursday - the highest daily total of 2023.
The milestone was hit during “small boats week”, where the government sought to make a series of positive announcements regarding efforts to combat crossings - but was hit instead by a barrage of damaging revelations.
In the days before the disembarkment, ministers made days of media appearances defending the barge against safety concerns, with immigration minister Robert Jenrick insisting it was “perfectly decent” and Home Office minister Sarah Dines claiming: “It’s a safe place for people to live and stay.”
Tuberculosis and scabies cases have previously been found at the Wethersfield military base - another of the government’s new “alternative” asylum accommodation sites.
“What an end to small boats week,” one former Conservative minister said. “It’s obvious to all that the home secretary has lost all control and authority on the issue of illegal migration.
“She is responsible for this crisis and should be held to account for her irresponsible actions that have brought disease to these sites and now threaten the public health of the local community.
“She should be sacked. She has turned the migrant crisis into a Carry On show.”
The ex-minister said that even before the barge evacuation, the government’s “week of gimmicks” had been a transparent attempt to distract from “operational failures to stop the boats”.
“All they’re doing is reinforcing the fact the government has failed and the public has seen that,” they added.
Former No 10 strategist Dominic Cummings said in his latest blog post that the government’s arguments on immigration had become “humiliatingly awful”.
Referring to Conservative Party deputy chair Lee Anderson, Mr Cummings said No 10 had been “reduced to defending idiot MPs telling people to ‘f*** off’ out of frustration that their own policy, which officials and their own spads told them couldn’t work, has turned into the predicted fiasco”.
The Home Office said no asylum seekers on the Bibby Stockholm had presented with symptoms of dangerous Legionnaires’ disease, and that the evacuation was a “precautionary measure” while further tests are carried out.
A spokesperson insisted there was no risk to the wider community of Portland from the barge, which is being run by private firms under a wider £1.6bn contract.
Louie O’Leary, a Tory councillor on Dorset Council who opposed the barge plan, said the problem should have been sorted out during safety checks. “I hope it’s not too late for a rethink,” he told The Independent.
“You can’t polish a turd. Most of us said this was not a sensible thing to do, and that’s proving to be the case. It’s costly and complex and it’s not better than housing people in hotels.”
Asylum seekers were still on board the barge when the Home Office announced the evacuation on Friday afternoon, with charity workers telling The Independent they had not been told anything about the legionella or given any safety precautions over water.
Stephen Kinnock, Labour’s shadow immigration minister, said: “The Tories' asylum chaos is going from bad to worse.
“They cannot even get the most basic things right. Reports of dangerous legionella bacteria on board come on top of fire safety delays and the revelation that it won’t stop costs and hotel use going up even further because the backlog is so high.”
It followed revelations that the Home Office had tried to put disabled asylum seekers and torture victims on the barge on Monday, in violation of its own guidance, and then threatened people who refused to board with homelessness.
On Tuesday, the government announced a crackdown on immigration lawyers it claims are helping migrants “exploit” the system, but it faced an immediate backlash from legal groups accusing ministers of scapegoating the profession for upholding the government’s own laws.
The following day saw the unveiling of a new partnership with Turkey to disrupt the supply of dinghies used for Channel crossings, although ministers would not say how much money was being given to Ankara.
The week has also seen a raft of potential policies floated, including withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights if the Supreme Court stops the Rwanda plan, and sending asylum seekers to Ascension Island instead.
Afghans are now the most common nationality arriving in small boats, following the collapse in the number of refugees resettled directly from the country.
Last month, the government passed a raft of punitive asylum laws aiming to see small boat migrants detained and deported without having their claims considered.
But the Illegal Migration Act cannot be implemented because there are no operational deportation agreements in place, with the £140m Rwanda scheme ruled unlawful by the Court of Appeal.
Even if the government wins the final stage of the legal battle at the Supreme Court later this year, the Lord Chief Justice said “the physical capacity for housing asylum seekers in Rwanda was limited to 100”.
