Labour has uncovered Government plans to inflict severe cuts on the UK Border Force - despite the need for heightened security following attacks in Brussels and Paris. 

The Home Office has so far refused to disclose the budget for the Border Force days before the financial year that begins later this week. However, whistleblowers working within the Force have told Labour that, at an internal meeting last week, they were told to expect cuts of six per cent in both 2016/17 and 2017/18. 

In cash terms, this would equate to cuts of £88 million over the next two years.

Shadow Home Secretary Andy Burnham has accused Theresa May of trying to hide the budget reductions. In a letter to the Home Secretary, he says he is “worried that you are about to make a very serious mistake with respect to the resourcing of UK border security.”

Burnham urges the Government to clarify its intentions and to “drop these damaging cuts”. He says “now is the time to be strengthening our borders, not weakening them.”

Days before the start of the 2016/17, the House of Commons’ Library has confirmed that the figures are not available in Home Office documents or the Treasury’s Red Book. 

Burnham called on the Home Secretary to disclose the information to the Commons on Wednesday following the Brussels attacks.  

Andy Burnham MP added:

“This is the worst possible time to be cutting UK border security. I believe that, in her heart of hearts, Theresa May knows that and that is why she is going to great lengths to hide these cuts.

"This is not good enough. The public has a right to know about the Government’s plans for the UK border and that is why I call on them to publish these figures without delay and to drop these damaging cuts.

"This decision is yet another consequence of George Osborne’s botched Spending Review and Budget. It has nothing to do with the EU Referendum and everything to do with a Government with its priorities wrong and whose austerity drive is putting our country at risk.”