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The policy has split Left and Right, with new polling from Find Out Now showing that it is overwhelmingly popular among Conservative and Leave voters, while as few as one in 10 Labour voters back it.
It has also caused deep disquiet in Whitehall, where civil servants could down tools and walk out rather than implement it. One official, who works outside the Home Office, told The Telegraph that the Rwanda plan was “taking ‘hostile environment’ to a whole new level”.
Dave Penman, the general secretary of the FDA trade union, which has 19,000 members, warned that officials could demand a transfer from the Home Office or leave the civil service entirely rather than deliver the policy.
“As a civil servant, your choice is either to implement the Government’s policy or resign,” he said. “The Home Office is often where the most controversial policies happen, but people will say that a line has been crossed.
“Their choice will be either to go along with it or leave the Home Office. It will be the case that a lot of people will leave either the department or the civil service.”
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), the largest in the Civil Service with nearly 180,000 members, said that “to attempt to claim this is anything other than utterly inhumane is sheer hypocrisy”.
The PCS, which represents the vast majority of border force staff, said earlier this year that it would go on strike over Ms Patel’s “morally reprehensible” plans to “push back” small boats in the Channel.
Home Office sources confirmed that the Home Secretary had issued a ministerial direction with regard to the Rwanda partnership because of the lack of certainty that the plans offered good value for money for the taxpayer.
However, friends of Ms Patel shrugged off concerns, saying civil servants had not quit over previous scandals such as Windrush.
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