A senior Home Office civil servant has been ordered to return before a parliamentary committee after being ejected for failing to respond to questions.
Oliver Robbins was thrown out of a Home Affairs select committee hearing on Tuesday because the answers he gave were “unsatisfactory”.
Robbins, the second permanent secretary at the Home Office, was told to contact MPs with the information they wanted by 6pm that day but failed to do so.
Keith Vaz, the chair of the committee, wrote to Robbins on Wednesday calling him to give evidence again next Tuesday.
Vaz grew increasingly frustrated with Robbins during his brief appearance to discuss the work of his department. The MP for Leicester East said: “I’m going to excuse you from this committee because I think your evidence so far has been unsatisfactory.”
Robbins appeared before the committee to answer questions about the budget of the UK’s border force.
He was asked whether Sir Charles Montgomery, the organisation’s director general, had been told what his budget was for the year.
Montgomery, who reports to Robbins, had previously told the committee he expected to know the figure by the start of the financial year.
Labour has previously claimed the Home Office is trying to hide cuts to its finances.
Robbins insisted it was “not easy to answer it in a simple yes or no”.
Just 20 minutes into his appearance, the civil servant was told to leave. Vaz said he would be writing to the cabinet secretary, Sir Jeremy Heywood, to complain.
Robbins, 40, is considered one of Whitehall’s most favoured civil servants. He was the UK’s deputy national security adviser to the cabinet office and claimed in a statement to the high court in 2013 that the Guardian’s Edward Snowden revelations could lead to “widespread loss of life”.
The government has not released proof of any subsequent deaths.
Robbins now has responsibility for immigration and free movement policy, and oversight of the borders, immigration and citizenship system, according to the Home Office.
