Labour accused of 'bungling' Channel security after drone company providing vital small boat surveillance sues Home Office

Labour has been accused of presiding over a new borders farce as it faces unprecedented legal action over vital surveillance for Channel small boats.

The Home Office is being sued in the High Court by a company currently providing remote-controlled drones to spot migrant dinghies.

Conservatives warned it could leave Channel operations 'in chaos' as the legal dispute will not be resolved until after the current contract expires at the end of this month.

The dispute – which hinges on the Government's decision to hand the multi-million pound contract to a rival firm – risks landing the taxpayer with a huge bill if the court agrees the Home Office bungled the deal.

It also raises fresh questions over the Home Office's handling of public money after a series of costly scandals.

The potentially explosive litigation is revealed today for the first time by the Daily Mail after nearly 1,200 Channel crossings in just three days, with a further unconfirmed number on Sunday thought to run to hundreds more.

The Home Office has agreed to extend the existing drone contract for four months until the court case is resolved, at a cost thought to run into millions of pounds.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: 'This legal action is another example of Labour's borders bungling.

A total of 1,193 people made the perilous journey to Britain between Thursday and Saturday, according to the latest Home Office figures, with further boatloads on their way from Gravelines beach near Calais on Sunday, pictured

Migrants boarded a dangerously-overloaded dinghy off Gravelines beach on Sunday

'They have let in over a thousand illegal immigrants across the Channel in the last three days alone, 95 per cent of whom will be allowed to stay in the UK forever and claim benefits. 

'Now it turns out Shabana Mahmood can't even run a procurement process properly, and maritime surveillance of illegal immigrants crossing the Channel is set to cost the taxpayer even more as a result.'

He added: 'The only solution is the Conservative borders plan which is to leave the European Convention on Human Rights so these illegal immigrants can all be rapidly deported on arrival.

'Then the crossings will soon stop and we won't need aerial surveillance in the first place.'

The new legal action came to light in heavily-redacted court papers seen by the Daily Mail.

Canadian firm PAL Aerospace has provided drone surveillance in the Channel for the last two years under a £54million contract due to expire at the end of this month.

The company submitted a bid for a new contract in a Home Office tendering exercise – but was beaten by a Nottinghamshire-based firm, DEA Aviation.

PAL claims the winner was allowed to 'submit an allegedly non-compliant bid which should have been excluded by the Home Office', the documents show.

The interim ruling indicates PAL Aerospace has brought the action after being undercut by the other company.

'It appears that PAL has lost out to DEA on the basis of its price which was approximately [redacted] of PAL's price,' the ruling said.

The litigation led to an 'automatic suspension' of the Home Office's ability to enter into a new contract with DEA Aviation, it shows.

Government lawyers applied to the court to lift the suspension, but Deputy High Court Judge Jonathan Acton Davis refused their argument last month and the case is due to begin trial on December 7.

The latest migrant arrivals were brought ashore at Dover by the UK Border Force on Sunday

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PAL Aerospace successfully argued that damages alone would not be an 'adequate remedy' but due to extensive censorship of the ruling it is unclear what else the company is seeking.

Lawyers for the successful bidder, meanwhile, argued that delay in resolving the case could lead to 'difficulties in recruiting staff'.

This could pose a further threat to the ability to continue effective surveillance in the Channel.

Although financial details were stripped out of the legal ruling, the then Home Office minister Alex Norris said in a parliamentary written answer in June that the existing aerial surveillance contract was worth £54million.

PAL Aerospace began operating under that contract on October 29, 2024, and it is due to expire on November 30 this year, the minister said.

Since Labour came to power 88,222 small boat migrants have reached Britain.

And since Andy Burnham seized power in an internal Labour party coup in July 11,039 have come, including 378 on Sunday. 

The legal action is the latest example of the Home Office's abysmal handling of contracts with the private sector.

In one of the most damning reports ever published into the dysfunctional department, published a year ago, MPs found the Home Office had 'squandered' billions of pounds on asylum hotels.

The home affairs select committee blasted the department's 'incompetence' over its handling of a 'failed, chaotic and expensive' system.

There was 'manifest failure' by the Home Office to 'get a grip' of contracts with private companies it appointed to house asylum seekers, it concluded, and firms had been allowed to make 'excessive profits' from the Channel crisis.

Another report into one of the Home Office's other big IT contracts also found a shambles.

The scheme, to provide a new walkie-talkie system for police, firefighters and paramedics, is already years late and has cost £2billion – but was nowhere near ready, MPs found in January last year.

The Commons' public accounts committee accused the Home Office of being 'disconnected from reality' and 'complacent' over its handling of contracts to build the Emergency Services Network. 

A Home Office spokesman said of the new court case: 'It wouldn't be appropriate to comment while legal proceedings are ongoing.'

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