June 27 Gordon Brown takes over from Tony Blair as Prime Minister promising a fresh start

June 28 Jacqui Smith is appointed Britain’s first female Home Secretary

Late June The Security Industry Authority realised that it had cleared thousands of illegal immigrants to work.

July 2 The SIA tells the Home Office of the problem

July 12 Ms Smith is by now aware of that thousands of foreigners are illegally employed as security guards.

July 24 The possibility of an early election is raised in Cabinet

August 9 Memo from Ms Smith’s private secretary says that she agrees that the ‘lines we have are \[not\] good enough for..ministers to explain the situation” He demands that a proper estimate of numbers be prepared for her return from holiday.

August 20 Ms Smith returns from holiday to be told that around 5,000 were illegally employed and the press office continues to advise that ministers keep quiet

August 30 A second memo, circulated to all Home Office ministers, repeats advice to stay silent rather than risk “significant criticism”

August 31 Speculation that Mr Brown is planning to hold an early election intensifies sharply.

October 6 Mr Brown announces that he has chosen not to go to the country in the autumn

November 11 Story that thousands of migrants have been wrongly licensed to work in high-profile security jobs breaks. Sunday Mirror reports that one was employed to guard the PM’s car.

November 12 Reporters are briefed that the reason for the previous news black out was not to compromise immigration raids against illegally-employed security gaurds

November 13 Internal memos are leaked suggesting that presentational, rather than operational concerns were behind the failure to reveal the situation.

November 13 Ms Smith is required to make a statement to the House of Commons on the affair. Mr Brown is under increasing pressure to say when he knew of the SIA failure and whether he approved of the news black out.

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