Priti Patel has quit as home secretary with a call for Liz Truss to back “all aspects” of her immigration policies, on the day judges began reviewing the legality of the Rwanda policy.
Ms Patel said it was her choice to return to the backbenches before the new prime minister appoints her cabinet, and The Independent understands that she had briefed Home Office staff that she would be leaving her post.
The foreign secretary has won the contest to become prime minister, but won’t enter Downing Street until Tuesday.
In a tweet Ms Patel said: “I congratulate Liz Truss on being elected our new leader, and will give her my support as our new prime minister.
“It is my choice to continue my public service to the country and the Witham constituency from the backbenches, once Liz formally assumes office and a new home secretary is appointed.”
Ms Truss was confirmed as the new prime minister after she defeated her rival Rishi Sunak to become Conservative Party leader.
However, she has to wait more than 24 hours to officially enter No 10, despite the cost of living crisis facing the country. She will be asked to form a government tomorrow on a visit to the Queen at Balmoral, in Aberdeenshire.
At that stage it is expected that her cabinet will take shape, before a cabinet meeting expected to be held early on Wednesday morning.
Ms Patel was thrown a career lifeline by Mr Johnson when she entered his cabinet in 2019.
She had been forced to resign as international development secretary by the then-prime minister Theresa May in 2017 over unauthorised contacts with Israeli officials.
Tough talking, she has long attracted controversy for her views, and was kept in her job after a 2020 probe found she broke the ministerial code by bullying civil servants.
She confirmed she was standing down in a letter to Boris Johnson, where she said: “It is vital that your succesor backs all aspects of [our] policies on illegal migration.”
Ms Patel listed the Rwanda deal, which is subject to two ongoing legal challenges at the High Court, and contravened internal government advice from the Foreign Office and diplomats.
The outgoing home secretary blamed “political opponents, and left-wing activists, lawyers and campaigners” for trying to block some of her ambitions and said she would continue championing her causes from the back benches.
Bella Sankey, the director of Detention Action, said: “Ms Patel will be remembered for turning far-right fantasies into government policy, stoking hatred towards lawyers for doing their jobs, breaking constitutional norms and tearing thousands of people from their homes, families and children.”
The number of asylum cases under consideration by the Home Office is at a record high, and the number of Channel crossings has rocketed since Ms Patel vowed to make the route “unviable” in August 2020.
Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, told The Independent: “Most people simply want an asylum system that is orderly, humane and fair and gives men, women and children who have fled war, conflict and violence a fair hearing on UK soil. What we have seen over the last few years is the opposite.”
She urged the next home secretary not to “repeat the mistakes of the past again and again”, but to “address what are major failings within an asylum system that is in desperate need of reform”.
The Freedom from Torture charity said Ms Patel had “resided over some of the most morally abhorrent and legally questionable policies in our country’s recent political history”.
Director Steve Crawshaw added: “She has shown brazen and consistent contempt for both domestic and international law, while her attacks on the right to protest have undermined a key pillar of our democracy.
“Her successor has an opportunity to leave behind Patel’s divisive politics and take concrete steps to reforming our asylum system, starting by establishing safe routes and heightening international cooperation so that people fleeing torture and war are no longer forced to take dangerous journeys to reach the UK.”
Earlier on Monday, Ms Patel was forced to defend her record in office after she was accused of overseeing a rise in gun and knife crime. She leaves office with recorded crimes standing at a record high, and the proportion prosecuted at a record low.
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper warned of a “serious problem” with violent crime.
The home secretary said she was “proud” of her time at the Home Office, claiming it had seen “some of the biggest reforms on security, migration and public safety”.
Critics called her the “worst home secretary in living memory”, accusing her of presiding over “brutal” and unevidenced policies, while leaving morale in the Home Office at rock bottom.
