Priti Patel in leak showdown with Foreign Office over offshore asylum plans

Home secretary’s asylum seeker plans leaked to discredit her, allies claim

Home Secretary Priti Patel
(Image credit: Carl Court/Getty Images)

Allies of Priti Patel have accused the Foreign Office of leaking “bizarre and unworkable” asylum policies to discredit her.

Friends of the home secretary say that rivals in other Whitehall departments leaked Patel’s “blue-sky thinking” on how best to deal with asylum seekers crossing the Channel “to make her look stupid,” The Telegraph reports.

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Arion McNicoll is a freelance writer at The Week Digital and was previously the UK website’s editor. He has also held senior editorial roles at CNN, The Times and The Sunday Times. Along with his writing work, he co-hosts “Today in History with The Retrospectors”, Rethink Audio’s flagship daily podcast, and is a regular panellist (and occasional stand-in host) on “The Week Unwrapped”. He is also a judge for The Publisher Podcast Awards.