Boris Johnson: Heathrow immigration meltdown gives 'terrible impression of UK'

He said the difficulties at Heathrow gave "a terrible impression of the UK" and it was unfortunate that the country's main port of entry was "gaining such a poor reputation".

Mr Johnson told Mrs May he was looking forward to "hearing what measures the Home Office and the UK Border Agency plan to take in order to rectify the situation both for the (Olympic) Games and for usual passenger numbers".

The Home Office has tried to ban Heathrow from informing the public about the full extent of delays at the airport, suggest leaked emails obtained by The Daily Telegraph.

Major airlines reacted furiously to an attempt by the Border Force to gag Heathrow over the meltdown faced by the immigration service.

The row over the delays faced by passengers arriving in Britain intensified after we disclosed that the Home Office had told BAA, Heathrow's operator, not to hand out a leaflet apologising for the poor service they faced and advising them to complain to the Government.

Simon Buck, chief executive of the British Air Transport Association, rounded on the Home Office and the UK Border Agency.

“Ministers may take a dim view about BAA handing out leaflets telling them how to complain about delays to the UKBA but surely this is entirely in the spirit of putting the consumer first? A cause otherwise championed by the Government. We all want to see robust borders but the fact is this does not have to mean passengers being unnecessarily delayed waiting in immigration halls.

"Airlines and airports want to work with the Home Office and UKBF to find a smarter way of addressing the problems. We should not accept that long delays are inevitable. It’s not in the interests of airline and airport operations and it’s certainly not in the interests of the travelling public or the UK’s reputation as a good place to come and visit.”

Heathrow approached “breaking” point last week, with passengers left so frustrated by delays that they resorted to storming past officials without showing their documents and slow handclapping staff in immigration halls.

Several times last week delays were reported in Terminal Five of up to two hours.

On Saturday BAA, the owner of Heathrow, tried to defuse tensions with a leaflet apologising to passengers for the “very long delays” and saying people entering the country “deserved a warmer welcome”.

The leaflet suggested that passengers should complain to the Home Office.

However, Marc Owen, the director of UK Border Agency operations at Heathrow, told BAA the leaflet was “inappropriate”.

He threatened to “escalate” the matter with ministers who were likely to take a “very dim view”.

He told BAA: “The leaflet is not all right with us. It is both inflammatory and likely to increase tensions in arrivals halls especially in the current atmosphere.

“It is inappropriate in that it is not for you to display how to complain on our behalf.

“Please refrain from handing out [the leaflets] or I will escalate [the matter] with ministers who are likely to take a very dim view. I know there are copies in the hall and your troops are ready with them.”

He also told BAA to stop passengers taking pictures of the queues in the arrivals hall in a further attempt to stem the flow of information about the havoc.

The disclosure will add to growing pressure on Damian Green, the immigration minister, who has been summoned to appear before the Commons home affairs select committee next week. There are growing concerns about Heathrow’s ability to cope with the influx of millions of tourists and athletes during the Olympics.

The disruption comes after the reintroduction of full passport checks following controversy over the relaxation of procedures by Brodie Clark, the former head of the Border Office.

Immigration staff fear the situation will be exacerbated as the Government seeks to reduce the number of Border Force officers from 8,874 in March, 2010, to 7,322 by March, 2015.

Jim Fitzpatrick, Labour’s aviation spokesman and a former transport minister, said: “This is a pure cover-up. I can understand people wanting to take pictures of the queues. This is further evidence of Border Force trying to hide the severity of the problem.

“Passengers need to know how to register complaints and for Border Force to try to prevent them doing so is outrageous.”

It is understood that Border Force has jurisdiction over the immigration hall. However, BAA would still be able to hand out the leaflet as passengers leave the plane and in adjoining corridors.

The row erupted as a series of emails from a senior border official obtained by The Daily Telegraph detailed the extent of the chaos.

One manager listed the errors that occurred last week, when some passengers had to wait more than an hour to pass through check points, leading to complaints, hand clapping and jeers.

A Spanish traveller who refused to wait any longer simply marched through the gate in a bid to bypass the checks. He was intercepted by a Special Branch officer. Border Force staff were unable to call police back up as the waiting crowd erupted in fury.

“I have never before had so many complaints from passengers in a single shift or faced such a hostile PCP (passenger check point) environment,” a Border Force member of staff said.

“I spent a lot of time in the queue areas and dealt with a lot of angry passengers who were hostile towards me or had been verbally abusive. The atmosphere was an unpleasant one.”

The difficulties were exacerbated by a series of technology glitches including the failure of a finger print machine, used to check passengers who require a visa to enter Britain.

On other occasions both the Iris recognition and new automatic passport scanning gates failed, adding to the frustration of new arrivals.

“I am unsure but I do not believe our staff are trained to use these machines,” one manager said. “If they were I could have deployed the kit much faster.”

The machinery was very slow and kept failing. Staff found it “impossible” to segregate those with visas in the crowded queueing areas.

At the time, only 11 desks of a possible 35 were being manned. The manager said this was “nowhere near enough”. Eight more officers were found, but even this was considered inadequate.

The Fast Track service offered to executives also generates so many complaints that senior managers believe it should be renamed.

One internal memo described how influential executives who paid thousands of pounds for a flight had voiced their displeasure at the delays. “This continues to generate many complaints when things are busy and we had to keep it open beyond its scheduled closing time,” the memo said.

“I wonder whether there is more we can do through airline stakeholders to manage expectations. Changing the name would be a start.”

Fast Track passengers are supposed to clear immigration formalities within 30 minutes according to the performance target set by the Border Force. Figures seen by this newspaper showed that this target was missed nine times in the first two weeks of this month.

Leading airlines have described the situation as a “national embarrassment”. The difficulties outlined last week will intensify pressure on the Theresa May, the Home Secretary, to act swiftly. Business leaders stepped up their demands for action to sort out the chaos.

“The border force is failing in its task and failing the UK, and it’s simply not good enough,” said Baroness Jo Valentine, the Chief Executive of London First.

“We cannot say we are open to business and then force visitors to queue for hours to get in.

“The Border Force must up its game – at a time when we need investment and cash spent in the UK, do we really want to deter business and tourists from coming here?”

The Border Force is to fly staff from Manchester to ease the situation at Heathrow, but the move was dismissed by Lucy Moreton, deputy general secretary of the Immigration Service Union, as “robbing Peter to pay Paul”.

On Saturday, The Daily Telegraph disclosed that travellers were being forced to wait up to an hour and a half to get into Britain as the Border Force routinely missed daily targets.

Figures for the first two weeks of the month disclosed the extent of the chaos faced by people flying into Heathrow. EU passengers as well as non-EU travellers suffered in the delays.

According to the statistics, compiled by BAA, Heathrow’s operator, for Terminal 3, the Border Force missed its target on 13 out of the 15 days, with some passengers queuing for up to an hour and a half. Britons and other European passport holders fared better, but on four days out of 15, the force missed its 25-minute target.

According to the figures there was not a single day in which the Border Force met all its targets for all three categories of passenger.

Worse problems occurred on a number of occasions last week, with Terminal Five reporting delays of up to two hours.

Last night a statement jointly issued by BAA and the Border Force said: "The majority of passengers pass through immigration control quickly but there are sometimes delays at airports for a range of reasons. We think it's important passengers are given the full picture.

"We will not compromise border security but we will work together to keep delays to a minimum."