Home Office warned over a year ago that cleaners were helping at airport e-gates

The Home Office was warned over a year ago that cleaners were having to manage queues at the airport’s E-gates, The Sun revealed on Sunday.

They help understaffed Border Force personnel “house” passengers in a queue.

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E-gate failures wreaked havoc at Heathrow and Luton last week.

However, a 2022 report said: “Hosts were replaced by staff from areas inexperienced in the role.”

“Border Force said cleaners were deployed to entertain.”

According to the Border Inspector’s report, Luton deployed cleaners to the E-gates.

MP Nigel Mills said: “This is shocking.

“It is worrying that the Border Force was warned of serious problems in the system as early as 2022, but we still had the appalling situation last week.”

“There is a real fear that this will continue and get worse.

“Why haven’t things improved?”

The Home Office said: “We are taking all possible measures.”