Priti Patel is facing a leadership crisis at the top of Border Force as it wrestles with a record number of migrant crossings and one of the worst Channel disasters on record.

       The Home Secretary has been unable to find a suitable candidate to head up Border Force and Immigration Enforcement as part of an overhaul ordered in the summer, amid frustration at the failure to stem the flow of Channel migrants.

       The top post remains vacant nearly six months after it was advertised as part of a potential merger of Border Force and Immigration Enforcement. The two civil servants currently heading up the two departments are also interim appointments and yet to be confirmed.

       It is compounded by vacancies in the small boats team, which is directly responsible for handling the Channel migrant crisis - in which a record 26,000 people have reached the UK this year, treble the 8,714 for the whole of 2020.

       The small boat posting is seen as a “poisoned chalice” that no one within Whitehall wants to apply for, as numbers crossing the Channel have continued to rise month by month to a record 6,000-plus in November.

       “They haven’t got anyone for the top job,” said one well-placed source.

       “It’s a disaster. Priti was not happy with any of the candidates. They could not even initially find anyone to do the interim job at Border Force.”

       It is believed three people applied to be director-general of Border Force and Immigration Enforcement - two internal Civil Service candidates and one former chief constable. All were rejected after panel interviews led by Patricia Hayes, the Home Office’s second permanent secretary.

       The trawl has now been reopened, forcing plans for any merger of border control and enforcement to be put on hold. The Border Agency was split into the two departments in 2013, with insiders at the time describing it as “mad” to break it up.

       David Wood, former head of Immigration Enforcement, said: “Border Force are responsible as they arrive on our shores. If they get one and a half miles inland, then Immigration Enforcement is responsible for them.

       “When they are intercepted, they have to hand them over to Asylum and Immigration. You end up with barriers between different parts. Each has its own budget, its own priorities and they are not particularly connected.”

       The Border Force union also claims Border Force and Immigration Enforcement are down by 1,000 staff, a quarter of their total, partly because of the difficulties of training new recruits due to Covid restrictions.

       A government source defended the time it is taking to recruit for the top post, because leaders want to get the right person for one of the most senior law enforcement jobs in the UK.

       Enforcement, asylum decision-making and Border Force regional task forces are said to be the hardest hit frontline departments.