Clark denies extending border trial

The former head of the UK Border Force Tuesday said he did not extend or alter Theresa May's border checks trial in any way.Brodie Clark, who resigned last week accusing the Home Secretary of making his position untenable, told MPs he gave Mrs May a weekly update on the trial's progress. He said: "I am no rogue officer. Nothing could be further from the truth." Clark said: "Let me say at the outset that I introduced no additions to the Home Secretary's trial, neither did I extend it or alter it in any way whatsoever. "Over the first month of the trial I reported weekly to the Home Secretary, as she required, and with each briefing I offered a follow-up meeting. "Aside from teething issues, the trial delivered into the border business exactly as she wished. "I did not enlarge, extend or redefine the scope in any way. "I have not wilfully or knowingly sanctioned an alteration to border checks that contravened existing Home Office policy." Clark went on: "I have, as I always have over 40 years, delivered within the Government parameters and I have done so with an absolute determination to strengthen the UK border. "We have built a strong agenda of getting the best from our staff; exploiting the most from our technology and focusing strongest on the real harm and threat to the UK. "We have come a long way in three years and it is by no accident that we now rank as one of the most secure border operations in the world." Clark, 60, quit after he was suspended by his boss, UKBA chief executive Rob Whiteman. Asked if he admitted allowing border staff to relax checks beyond the extent authorised by Mrs May, he said he did not and added that he still believed he had not done so. "I, at no stage, told Whiteman that I had gone beyond the terms of the pilot the Home Secretary initiated," he said. Clark said he never relaxed fingerprint checks "as a matter of course" but arrangements were in place to suspend fingerprint matching for non-visa holders in certain circumstances for health and safety reasons. This happened 50 times in May, June and July and seven times in August, September and October, he said. It would be implemented when there were lengthy queues, passengers being held on planes or planes not being able to land. "I would expect ministers to know that," he said. The hearing continues.