Cooper condemns Heathrow 'disgrace'

Jul 8 2012

It is a disgrace that with three weeks until the Olympics international athletes arriving at Heathrow are waiting longer than two hours to pass through immigration control, shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper says.

A leaked memo reveals tourists arriving from outside the European Economic Area are repeatedly waiting longer than the 45-minute target time to pass through passport control.

Meanwhile, European visitors are waiting longer than one hour when it should take less than 25 minutes to have their documents checked.

Ms Cooper said many of those forced to wait in long queues were Olympic athletes, who will be arriving ahead of the opening ceremony on July 27 to acclimatise to UK conditions.

She said Home Secretary Theresa May had failed to ensure enough staff were employed at peak times.

Ms Cooper said: "These figures are a disgrace. With just three weeks to go until the Olympics people are waiting more than two hours at Heathrow, and the targets for Terminal 4 have been breached on 26 of the last 30 days.

"The Home Secretary ought to be able to make sure there are proper security checks without long queues. After all there has been long enough to prepare for the Olympics.

"Instead, she has cut 900 Border Agency staff and these documents show there are still too few staff in place at peak times.

"When the eyes of the world are on London and everyone has been working so hard to show the world the best of British, the first impression many visitors will get is to stand for hours in a queue.

"Theresa May is allowing border control to become an embarrassment. We need proper security checks and we need to keep people moving. She needs to get this sorted very fast."