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 handle queues at ­airport e-gates, The Sun on Sunday can reveal.

They help understaffed Border Force staff “host” passengers lining up.

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Tech failure at e-gates last week caused chaos at Heathrow and Luton.

Yet a 2022 report said: “Hosts were replaced with staff from areas inexperienced in the role.

“Border Force said cleaners were used to perform the hosting.”

The report by the borders inspector said Luton used cleaners at e-gates.

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MP Nigel Mills said: “This is shocking.

"It is worrying that Border Force were warned of serious problems in the system back in 2022 but we still had the appalling situation last week.

"There's a real fear this will continue and get worse.

"Why haven’t things improved?”

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The Home Office said: “We’re putting in place every measure possible.”