Home Office has morphed into giant creche - shocking failures laid bare

It is hard to know where to start when it comes to working out which of the damning findings about the state of the Home Office is most depressing. All of it is shocking, but none of it is surprising, because you do not need to be an expert to see the department is a basket case. It fought for two years to suppress the report, which was written by an MP who was once an adviser working among its ranks. But it eventually relented this week after a legal challenge.

The review is a portrait of a department hamstrung by a culture of defeatism, poor management and operational failures. It is little wonder that the small boats crisis is getting worse and deportations are almost impossible. But the total failure of its leadership to grasp some of Britain's most pressing problems is less shocking than some of the madness that has taken hold of its staff.

During working hours, employees take part in "listening circles" where they discuss their feelings about political issues. If that woo woo time-wasting wasn't bad enough, the issues they are emoting about show they are not maintaining civil service impartiality.

It is enough to send any taxpayer's blood pressure through the roof. Instead of asking, "How many small boats crossings have you stopped?", staff have a chance to talk about how they feel about small boats crossings being stopped.

Civil servants from other departments do not want to work in the Home Office for ethical reasons, including disagreeing "with either the principle of immigration control or the policies needed to achieve it".

The department has a culture of "bringing your whole self to work", which sounds nightmarish. Half a self is surely more than enough. Better to inflict your whole self on the people duty-bound to put up with you, such as family.

The report warned there was an unhealthy culture of junior members of staff dictating the actions of senior officials. Over the years, the civil service has jumped on every passing human resources fad so it's no surprise the toddlers are running the show.

The department in charge of our borders and security has turned into a giant creche. It prioritises the whims of its junior staff over delivery of the policies it is there to implement.

Who is to blame for that? The senior civil servants. But it turns out that they are even worse. While the needy junior members of staff expect the service to run solely for their own benefit, those higher up the ladder show their contempt for democracy by wilfully obstructing ministers.

Officials were found to have routinely briefed ministers at the last minute on important matters that needed immediate decisions to be taken.

They also did so without passing on all the key content and context, which "prevents ministers from taking the time to consider alternative assessments or options".

This should have very serious consequences, but civil servants were rarely disciplined for this. In 2018, Amber Rudd resigned after misleading MPs over immigration targets, but it was the officials who had failed to give her the information.

Former Cabinet minister Michael Gove, who invented the term "The Blob" to describe the inertia of the civil service, said the Home Office was the "most dysfunctional" of all departments.

He described an "embedded culture" across Whitehall, where ministers are viewed as people just passing through who should only occasionally be "indulged". Mr Gove told Times Radio: "I remember [once] it was suggested we get some people in to work at the weekend, which was an almost unprecedented idea.

"When I asked how many people would be turning up on ...Saturday in order to help process what was an emergency situation, I was told we would have to 'wait and see'.

"I pointed out in exasperation that this wasn't a school fete, this was a crisis where we required people to work. I was then subsequently reported for bullying staff because I wanted people to actually do what ministers believed was imperative at that time."