The Liberal Democrats have set up a petition calling on the Home Secretary Charles Clarke to go following the revelation that 1023 have been released into the community without being considered for deportation. 288 of these arose after the Home Office became aware of this situation.
Nick Clegg the Lib Dem shadow Home Secretary said:
"We now know that the Home Office has been aware of this problem for several years. Yet after a series of stark warnings, foreign prisoners continued to be released without being properly assessed. As a consequence, public safety has been put at risk.
"To make matters worse, the Home Secretary has still not explained why murderers, rapists and paedophiles have gone missing, when under existing rules they are supposed to notify the authorities of their address.
"Charles Clarke is right to take responsibility for this fiasco, but wrong to think that he can remain in charge of the Home Office."
The Home Secretary is claiming that he will now be taking action over this matter but his failure to do so even after this matter came to light when his department is also seeking to tighten up home security is a travesty. The fact that foreign murderes and rapists are loose in the UK and their location is not known must surely be a reason for the Home Secretary to resign. His predessor David Blunkett had said that heads would roll over a far less dangerous situation.
You can sign the petition here.
You have to wonder about the arrogance of both Charles Clarke and Tony Blair in refusing to allow heads to roll over this complete cock-up
ReplyDelete