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Robert Jenrick has suggested he regrets covering up cartoon murals at a processing centre for lone child migrants when he was serving as immigration minister.
The Tory leadership hopeful has said for the first time that he would not make the same decision again after it emerged last year he had ordered the images, which included Mickey Mouse, be taken down.
At the time, he was reported to have felt the images at the Kent Intake Unit were too “welcoming” for the children being processed at the centre after arriving in the UK on small boats.
He has repeatedly defended the decision since, telling attendees at Tory conference that many of those being processed at the centre were “young adults who were posing as children” and the vast majority were 16 and 17-year-olds.
But, speaking on Friday to LBC, Mr Jenrick said he would not make the same decision again.
Mr Jenrick said he took the action as he was “very worried at the time and continue to be about those people who are adults, coming into our country illegally and posing as children”.
He added: “So I did feel that it was important that at the initial point of arrival we treat these places as law enforcement environments with a view to trying to weed out those people who are actually just posing as children.
“I think that was the right decision, but of course there are lessons to be learned from it, and I probably would have done things differently if I had my time again.”
Pressed if this meant he would not do it again, he said: “No I wouldn’t, but what I did want to do then and I feel just as passionately about today, is that we have got to weed out those people who are posing as children when they first arrive.”
Yvette Cooper at the time condemned Mr Jenrick for ordering the murals to be painted over. She said painting over the cartoons of Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters would not “deter” small boats, and accused the minister of trampling over “common decency towards vulnerable children”.
On the same visit to the Kent Intake Unit, Mr Jenrick reportedly also called for colourful welcome signs to be taken down to make clear the unit was a “law enforcement environment” and “not a welcome centre”.
The Home Office has since revealed that the redecoration works cost £1,500.
