Comment Central: what did the PM know?

Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, today denied there had been any cover-up over the employment of illegal immigrants in the security industry, insisting ministers had taken "robust action".

In a Commons statement, Ms Smith stressed it was the "legal duty" of all employers to ensure that their employees were entitled to work in the UK. The Security Industry Authority, which has licensed applicants for security posts since 2003, had "not failed to do anything that it was obliged to do in law".

She told MPs that from July every non-European applicant had had their right to work in the UK checked and from October the SIA had required "new and tighter" identity checks.

Expert View

Jacqui Smith is learning that difficulties buried in the basement of the Home Office have the toxicity to damage and even destroy political careers

Richard Ford, Home Correspondent

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"My approach was that the responsible thing to do was to establish the full nature and scale of the problem and take appropriate action to deal with it, rather than immediately to put incomplete and potentially misleading information in to the public domain."

But David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said that the Home Office response so far to the disclosure that thousands of illegal immigrants were cleared to work as security guards had been "blunder, panic and cover-up".

The latest row erupted after documents obtained by the Daily Mail apparently showed that Ms Smith was made aware of the problem involving at least 5,000 illegal immigrants as early as July - four months before the news became public last weekend.

Press reports at the weekend revealed that some illegal immigrants given licences by the SIA ended up working for the Metropolitan Police. Others reportedly found employment in Whitehall and at ports and airports.

Gordon Brown gave Ms Smith his full backing this morning, but the Tories did their best to drag the Prime Minister into the row when David Davis, Shadow Home Secretary, pointedly contrasted the Home Office's actions with Mr Brown's promise to introduce "a different type of politics".

"The response of the Home Office so far has been blunder, panic and cover-up," Mr Davis told MPs.

Ms Smith told the Commons that she was made aware of the problem at the Security Industry Authority in July, when ministers ordered a review of all 250,000 licences issued since 2004.

The body, which reports to the department, had not been checking whether individuals were entitled to work in the country before giving them clearance.

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