Suella Braverman ordered a review into the contract award which was quietly dropped (Image: Getty)

       Suella Braverman has furiously blasted the Home Office for hiring "lefty lawyers" who blocked Rwanda flights. MPs have hit out after it emerged that one of the Home Office's agencies had taken on the very lawyers who took the department to the Supreme Court to block deportation flights.

       The Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner (OISC) has just signed a lucrative three-year contract with two barristers who defeated the Rwanda plan in the Supreme Court, described the plan as “draconian” and even joked that the British government has “bribed” Rwanda.

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       Newly released documents show that on January 16, 2024, HJT Training, owned and run by Mark Symes and David Jones, were awarded a contract worth up to ￡174,000 to provide training materials, and to “test those applying to become regulated immigration advisers”.

       The two barristers have publicly attacked government immigration policy - especially the plan to deport illegal migrants to Rwanda - and led the legal challenge which has forced the government to attempt to change the law to allow the flights to take place.

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       Ms Braverman told Express.co.uk: "I remember asking for this to be reviewed. The Home Office or its agencies should not be going around hiring lefty lawyers. This is part of the problem."

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       Former Conservative deputy chairman Lee Anderson, currently an Independent MP, also expressed his shock at the decision.

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       READ MORE: Priti Patel declares France must 'do more' to stop Channel migrant crisis.

       Lee Anderson is one of the MPs who has voiced his concern (Image: Getty)

       He told Express.co.uk: "It seems like 'lefty lawyers' are in great demand, especially in the Home Office."

       Tory Dudley North MP Marco Longhi added: "There is a clear bent in the Home Office to take a political stance over Rwanda by officials. I’d like to see the Home Secretary step in and stop it because I have lost confidence in these officials."

       There are even greater concerns because Ms Braverman had ordered a review into the award of the contract which appears to have been dropped after she was sacked as Hoe Secretary and replaced with James Cleverly.

       The findings are included in a new report by the Centre for Migration Control, set to be released later this week, which shows the influence of "lefty lawyers" over the UK asylum and immigration policy.

       Prior to accreditation, all immigration advisors are required to undergo assessment and training. Successful completion of an examination is needed before advisors can legally provide advice to those seeking asylum – including those who crossed on small boats.

       In January this year, on the Contract Finder website, it was disclosed that the Office of the Immigration Services Commissioner – a quango within the Home Office – awarded a contract to HJT Training for the "provision of competence assessment and moderation process".

       This contract had previously been held by HJT Training but in November 2022 Suella Braverman launched an "urgent review" into the tender process after it was revealed that both its directors were barristers at Garden Court Chambers – a leading law firm opposing the Rwanda plan.

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       James Cleverly took over as Home Secretary after Suella Braverman was sacked (Image: Getty)

       Recently Symes, despite holding a government contract at the time, joked to an audience of immigration lawyers that, by making payments to the Rwandan government, "Rwanda has been 'bribed', sorry not 'bribed' but given an 'incentive to comply'" with the terms of the UK-Rwanda Memorandum of Understanding.

       He also said that the Rwanda plan would leave individuals in "Dante’s first circle of hell", that refugee protections are being damaged by the government with "the speed of parchment going up in flame" and that the UK was presently an "asylum laboratory".

       The Provision of Competence Assessment and Moderation Process contract requires HJT Training to "write, mark and moderate immigration and asylum question papers at all levels (1-3) in order to adequately assess a candidate's knowledge of immigration and asylum".

       The contract was first issued in 2016 after the Home Office saw it fit to "outsource the drafting of the questions and the marking of the answer papers" to a third party, rather than the process being done in-house as it had since 2013.

       HJT is also required to "work alongside the OISC in updating its Immigration and Asylum Syllabuses, which explain what knowledge and skills are required of candidates at the three different authorised levels of advice".

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       Research Director at the CMC, Robert Bates said: “The government’s defeat in the Supreme Court was bruising and means that no flights will take off to Rwanda before the next election. It should trouble everyone to learn that one of the lawyers behind this defeat is actually employed by the government, and that he has been handed 'significant responsibilities' to assess all regulated immigration advisors.

       "The British taxpayer should not be expected to fork out thousands for an individual that is hell-bent on thwarting popular policies like Rwanda. Now that the likes of Suella Braverman and Robert Jenrick have left government, it is hard to see who else in the Cabinet has the necessary backbone to try and stamp out this ridiculousness."

       An OISC spokesperson said: "HJT Training Ltd was awarded a contract renewal by the OISC in September 2023.

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       "This contract involves supplying immigration assessment questions and marking assessments completed by applicant immigration advisers. This is part of the OISC’s assessment process for advisers seeking OISC registration. HJT Training will continue to provide examination services."

       The OISC also pointed out that it is an arms length non-departmental public body, led by the Immigration Services Commissioner, John Tuckett making independent decisions to the Home Office.

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