the times | Saturday April 9 2022 21
News
Britons returning from holiday are
being warned of border delays as Covid
sickness rates rise sharply.
Soaring staff sickness among border
officials means that delays in getting
back into the country are “inevitable”
in the next week as Britons return from
Easter breaks overseas.
Lucy Moreton, of the Immigration
Services Union, representing Border
Force staff, said the agency had been hit
by a “perfect storm” of issues, including
Covid absence, general sickness and
the small boats crisis in the Channel,
which is putting pressure on resources.
Passenger numbers at UK airports
have risen sharply in recent weeks after
all remaining Covid travel restrictions
were dropped by Westminster shortly
before the school Easter holidays.
The rebound has coincided with a
wave of infection, causing chaos for air-
lines, airports and the Border Force.
One in 13 people in England are be-
lieved to have been infected with Covid
in the week ending March 26, the high-
est rate since the pandemic began.
Those testing positive are no longer
required to self-isolate and while free
testing has ended in England, many
employers are urging staff who are un-
well or symptomatic to stay at home.
Moreton said: “We’ve yet to see what
impact all the new symptoms and the
lack of testing is going to have but the
expectation is we’re going to see more
staff staying away.”
The NHS expanded its official list of
Covid symptoms on Monday to include
nine more signs, including a blocked
nose, headache and a sore throat.
New government advice says anyone
with these symptoms who feels unwell
should try to work from home and
avoid contact with others.
The Border Force has also reported a
rise in non-Covid absence, according to
Moreton. She said: “The last set of staff
sickness figures I saw showed that non-
Covid absences have absolutely soared
Air passengers face long waits at security and upon their return at the UK borderDame Cressida Dick took a parting
shot at Priti Patel and Sadiq Khan over
the “politicisation of policing” as she
left Scotland Yard for the last time
yesterday.
She said the growing influence of pol-
itics undermined the criminal justice
system in the UK. In a final “letter to
London” Dick wrote: “The current
politicisation of policing is a threat not
just to policing but to trust in the whole
criminal justice system.
“Operational independence from
local and central government is crucial
for an effective democracy and is a
model respected around the world. We
must all treasure and protect it.”
Patel criticised the Met’s soft touch
response to Black Lives Matter and
environmental protests and Khan, the
Labour mayor of London, was accused
of forcing the commissioner to quit for
political gain. He announced in Febru-
ary that he had lost confidence in Dick
because he was not convinced by her
plan to restore public trust in the Met
after claims of misogyny and racism.
The announcement, less than six
Keep politics out of police,
departing Met chief says
months after Khan backed Patel’s deci-
sion to extend the commissioner’s con-
tract by two years, forced Dick to resign
and triggered a briefing war between
Scotland Yard and City Hall.
Sir Stephen House, Dick’s deputy
who will replace her as interim com-
missioner, accused Khan of failing to
follow “due process” in ousting her and
called for a Home Office review into
the events leading to her resignation.
Days later, Patel announced one.
Khan yesterday stood by his decision,
insisting he was not “going to hide from
the fact” that he lost confidence in Dick.
A Whitehall source defended Patel’s
decision to interfere in the protests, say-
ing: “There were vandals and thugs on
the streets of Britain and instead of
arresting them the Met knelt down in
front of them.”
Patel raised eyebrows among senior
police when she made a number of late-
night phone calls to officers responding
to the blockade of printing presses in
Hertfordshire by Extinction Rebellion
protesters in 2020. Officers told a court
hearing later that it was unprecedented
for a home secretary to interfere in the
operational response to protests.Covid chaos at airports
spreads to border officials
in the last two weeks. And that’s largely
[due to] burnout.
“We said it was going to happen
sooner or later and it seems to be the
case now. We have six-day working in
place [with overtime] and when you’re
working 12-13 hour shifts day after day,
you get sick.”
Many British passengers will have
been hit by the double whammy of long
queues on the outbound trip and then
significant waits at the UK Border. The
Times queued for 45 minutes for pass-
port control at Stansted Airport on
Thursday lunchtime, which would not
be considered a peak time.
“It is definitely going to be a pinch
point in the next week,” Moreton said.
“It would always have been a period of
peak travel but the increased rate of ab-
sence and other operational pressures
we’re facing mean it’s a perfect storm.”
It came as the boss of Manchester
Airport said he “cannot apologise
enough” for queues at security caused
by a lack of staff.
Charlie Cornish, the chief executive
of Manchester Airports Group, said he
recognised passengers’ frustration and
promised that the airport was doing all
it could to recruit new security officers.
Cornish said: “The simple fact is that
we don’t have the number of staff we
need to provide the level of service that
our passengers deserve.
“Despite our efforts since last
autumn, the tight labour market has
meant we have just not been able to hire
people quickly enough to establish a
full-strength team.”
Cornish blamed the disruption on a
combination of uncertainty about
when Covid travel restrictions would
end and delays in vetting new staff.
He said: “These vetting processes are
rightly demanding, but they have made
it more difficult for us to recruit, with
more than half of those we offer jobs to
finding another vacancy before the
process is complete.”
The airport is asking people to arrive
three hours before their flights in order
to clear security. Cornish said thatwhile he hoped most people would pass
through security in 30-40 minutes
some passengers would face delays of
90 minutes. This week holidaymakers
reported waits of up to two hours.
Widespread disruption is expected at
airports across the UK this weekend,
and there are warnings of long queues
of traffic on the roads, especially on the
M20 and roads in Kent towards the
Port of Dover.Ben Clatworthy
Transport Correspondent
Matt Dathan Home Affairs Editor
SPLASHNEWS.COM