Immigration minister resigns

I think he resigned more because this was becoming very difficult and he is at the sharp end than the fact he had a cleaners whose documents were not in order. I suspect this was a timely excuse or am I being too cynical?

Yes it is much harder than it sounds isn't it maggiemaybe when you have so many different types of visas for non EU nationals.

Good luck, Maggie. At least you've got a precedent now, in case you have mislaid any paperwork. Keep a copy of his resignation letter in case you need mitigation.

I feel sorry for the man. His seems to be an honest mistake. But on the other hand the ordinary Joe isn't allowed to be fallible either. I'm the poor so and so who has to check ID, right to work and safeguarding documents at my place of work and keeping up with constant changes to legislation and rechecks is a pain, to say the least. Copies of documents do have a habit of disappearing or relocating when new managers start rooting through files.

And now I'll be having sleepless nights until I find the time to check all the files of our workers from overseas....

The issue is that he is the guy who is banging on about employers and landlords having a legal responsibility to check on their employees/tenants. He now knows how difficult that is, having fallen foul of it himself. I am not suggesting he was deliberately culpable, but he had no choice but to resign, given the policies that he is advocating, which he cannot stay on the right side of himself.

The border agency rules say that you have to have a copy of the documents. He could not find them. That's why he resigned. He should have fined himself 5 or 10 thousand pounds.

He was the person responsible for the vans with the signs telling illegals to get out of Britain.

Charley, can't you imagine the feeding frenzy in the press if he hadn't resigned?

I personally do not think that he should have resigned. He did what was required of him earlier, checking her passport etc. As somebody said, maybe this was a "get out" for him.

He seems a decent bloke and has been caught out by a slight misjudgement its a pity Chris Smith of the Enviroment Agency didn't take a leaf out of his book and resign swiftly.

He is a local MP (not mine but nearby) and a decent man. Perhaps he was relieved to hand back this poisoned chalice?

Is he not due some credit for doing the honourable thing? Jen

Maybe he resigned because he did not want to take the can any longer for this government's policies. As he had employed an immigrant, he should have known the problems from her point of view, too.

Icyalittle.

That is my thought on the matter too.

Maybe more will come out tomorrow or next week but I do wonder if he resigned too quickly if as I understand it he has not particularly done anything wrong.

To be fair, the BBC reports that he had checked her documentation when he employed her in 2007, including taking a copy of her passport and a Home Office letter which stated she had the right to work in the UK. That was all he he, or any other employer had to do at the time. He rechecked her docs recently, because his dept is overseeing a tightening of employer requirements, and his office found she had not been granted indefinite leave to remain. You cannot apply for this until you have been in the UK for at least five full years. Tbh, as an employer, once my company had checked on initial hiring of employees, I am not sure we would have thought to check again. Sounds to me as if he has done the decent thing.