It also caused deep distress in Whitehall, where civil servants could download tools and go out instead of applying them. An official working outside the interior ministry told The Telegraph that Rwanda’s plan was “taking the ‘hostile environment’ to a whole new level”. Dave Penman, secretary general of the FDA, which has 19,000 members, warned that officials could demand a transfer from the Home Office or leave the public service altogether instead of handing over politics. “As a civil servant, your choice is either to implement the government’s policy or to resign,” he said. “The Home Office is often the place where the most controversial policies take place, but people will say that a line has been crossed. “Their choice will be either to follow it or to leave the Interior Ministry. It will be the case that many people will leave either the ministry or the public service.” The Association of Public and Commercial Services (PCS), the largest in the Civil Service with almost 180,000 members, said that “trying to claim this is anything but utterly inhumane is pure hypocrisy.” The PCS, which represents the vast majority of border guards, said earlier this year it would go on strike over Mrs Patel’s “morally reprehensible” plans to “push” small boats into the English Channel. Interior Ministry sources confirmed that the interior minister had issued a ministerial mandate on Rwanda co-operation due to a lack of certainty that the plans offered good value for money to taxpayers. However, Ms Patel’s friends dismissed their concerns, saying that civil servants had not given up on previous scandals such as Windrush.
