Jacqui Smith’s cholera warning exposes rift with Foreign Office

Jacqui Smith has been hit by a new leak, this time from her own senior colleagues who have disclosed that she warned the Cabinet about an influx of refugees from Zimbabwe and the subsequent risk of cholera bein spread to Britain.

Scotland Yard's finest should be directed to David Miliband's office at the Foreign Office, which is being blamed for leaking the 'alarmist' remarks by the Home Secretary. Miliband's officials believe it is part of a Home Office campaign to justify a fresh crackdown on immigration.

Foreign Office sources are claiming that the Home Office is using the cholera scare as an excuse to toughen the requirements for visa controls on migrants claiming to be from Zimbabwe. Yet, as the FO sources put it, most Zimbabweans are too poor to get across the border and buy tickets for a flight to Britain.

No doubt the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, who called in the Yard to investigate the leaks that led to Damian Green's arrest, will take a dim view of the leaking of the conversation from the Cabinet table as part of the Whitehall spat between the two departments.

Meanwhile, Jacqui Smith can expect no help from the Treasury if she applies for a rise in her budget to cope with any increase in crime as a result of the financial crash leading to unemployment rising to three million next year.

Tony McNulty, the former Home Office minister, said in September that crime may well go up as a result of the recession. "We've never made any pretence that the economy and crime are inextricably linked. This really is a statement of the blindingly obvious..."

But the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, has no sympathy with this view.
He has told friends that "unemployment cannot justify crime". He is not
prepared to offer any more cash for crime caused by the credit crunch. "Jacqui has got enough cash in the budget. She's not getting any more," is the message from Darling.

THE MOLE: ZIMBABWE SCARE

FIRST POSTED DECEMBER 12, 2008