Mark Harper had been the face of the Coalition’s Immigration Bill reforms and was responsible for driving the government’s increasingly hard line on illegal migrants
Mark Harper, the British immigration minister, dramatically resigned from the government after discovering that the woman he had paid to clean his flat for the past six years was an illegal immigrant.
Harper has been the face of the Coalition’s Immigration Bill reforms and was responsible for driving the government’s increasingly hard line on illegal migrants in recent months.
Downing Street insisted that the Conservative MP had not “knowingly” employed an illegal immigrant and he denied having broken the law.
However, Harper, 43, who was seen as one of the party’s brightest prospects, admitted that he should have checked the status of his South American cleaner “more thoroughly”.
Government sources stressed that Harper would not face any investigation. Legal experts, however, suggested that his failure to keep copies of the cleaner’s documents could leave him open to a £5,000 fine.
Colin Yeo, a barrister from Garden Court Chambers in London, likened the case to that of Baroness Scotland, the former Labour minister, who was fined £5,000 in 2009 for employing an illegal immigrant as a housekeeper and failing to keep copies of the documents.
Harper has employed the woman since 2007 but conducted only one full check on her background at the time he hired her.
While he considered making further investigations into her background when he was appointed a minister in 2010, and again when he became immigration minister two years later, he did not ask his officials formally to examine her status until last week.
These checks concluded on Thursday that the cleaner did not have the necessary legal status of “indefinite leave to remain”, despite her providing Harper with documents which stated that she did. The woman, who has not been named, is now subject to an investigation by immigration enforcement officers.
Harper decided to quit immediately in an attempt to prevent a drawn-out scandal, and David Cameron thanked him for his “loyalty”.
However, the loss of Harper under such circumstances will be acutely embarrassing for Prime Minister David Cameron, who has made cutting net migration and tackling illegal immigrants central to his mission as he seeks to fend off the threat from the UK Independence Party at the European elections in May.
