UK Border Force urged to ‘deprioritise’ gun and drugs searches to ease queues

Border Force officers have been ordered to “deprioritise” customs work at airports such as searching for guns and drugs in order to stop passport queues frustrating travellers. Leaked emails show that staff at Manchester airport were told this month that customs work should be carried out only if “there is no likelihood of an excessive queue time”. It meant there would be no spot-checks for illegal firearms, offensive weapons or drugs by customs officers, sources said. Searches could be initiated by intelligence-led work such as a category A order – a rare response prompted by intelligence from the National Border Targeting Centre. The Guardian understands staff have been under intense pressure from ministers to keep queues moving swiftly, particularly during half-term in parts of the UK. Staff at Heathrow said they had also been told not to work “proactively’ on customs during the February school holiday. The disclosures came as Home Office sources said there was increasing concern within government that there would be another Easter and summer of chaos at UK ports and airports. It follows a highly critical review last year into Border Force by Alexander Downer, commissioned by the former home secretary Priti Patel. The review concluded that Border Force’s work to prevent the entry of firearms and class A drugs had been “diluted”. The leaked email was sent by a named assistant director at the Border Force on 9 February, days before many school holidays began. “I want to confirm the steps we need to take to stabilise the PCP [primary control point] excessive wait times and to make the best use of the resources we have available to secure the border,” the email said.<br/>