Immigration minister’s cleaner lacks work visa
By Alan Oakley
Immigration minister Mark Harper fell on his sword at the weekend when it was revealed that a cleaner he had employed for seven years had no right to work in the UK. Mr Harper stood down from the position he had held since 2012 because, he told journalists, he needed to maintain higher standards than everyone else regarding immigration matters.
Mr Harper took on Isabella Acevedo in 2007 to clean and iron at his Westminster Square flat, one of several reportedly used by MPs. Ms Acevedo received £30 per week for services she allegedly also performs at other flats, which raises the suspicion that MPs on both sides of the House may have fallen foul of the 2006 Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act.
Mr Harper has taken a hard line on immigration since taking charge two years ago. He was famously behind the targeted mobile billboards that urged illegal immigrants in specific immigration hot-spots to hand themselves in to authorities or face arrest. He also presided over the controversial recent Immigration Bill, due for its second reading before Parliament this week, a key component of which is a threat to fine landlords and employers thousands of pounds for harbouring migrants without verifying their right to live or work in the UK.
Seeking to head off accusations that he failed to carry out the very checks he intended to penalise other employers for, Mr Harper said that he checked the Colombian cleaner’s documents when he took her on in 2007, but had not done so again until he asked Home Office officials to verify them last week. He also offered the not previously forthcoming clarification that the Immigration Bill only expects employers to carry out “reasonable checks” on the status of their employees. “We do not require [employers] to be experts or spot anything other than an obvious forgery,” he said.
Critics suggest that, under his own department’s legislation, Mr Harper should face a £5,000 fine for not keeping copies of the documents he says Ms Acevedo provided. Whitehall sources insist Mr Harper would avoid a fine because his cleaner was self-employed. But legal experts say this is not an automatic defence. Under Section 15 of the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006, employers are liable for civil penalties of up to £10,000 if they do not ‘verify, retain, copy or record the content’ of a worker’s documents.
There is also a precedent. Labour peeress Baroness Scotland, Britain’s first black female QC and the first female to be appointed Attorney General, was fined £5,000 in 2009 for failing to keep copies of the papers of her Tongan housekeeper who, it had emerged, had overstayed her UK visa.
Mr Harper’s resignation sees a cabinet reshuffle in which junior Home Office minister James Brokenshire moves up to become Minister of State, while Karen Bradley moves from the whips office to fill his role.
John Penrose is promoted within the whips office to replace Ms Bradley and Harriet Baldwin is brought into the Government ranks as a junior whip.
