A DAMNING review laying bare the failings of the Home Office was hidden “under lock and key”, it has emerged.
The review – carried out two years ago by Tory Nick Timothy – found the department dysfunctional and detached from reality.
Staff wasted hours in “listening circles” talking about their feelings and identity politics when they should have been tackling illegal immigration and crime, it found.
The survey was so scathing that ex Home Office mandarin Tom Mottershead kept it locked up in a Cabinet and secret from ministers.
It was eventually released earlier this week after a legal battle.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood is furious at the “suppression” of the review and determined to take a broom to failing Home Office staff.
Officials in the Ministry of Justice talked of a “Shabanageddon” that swept aside ineffectual mandarins and she will do the same in her new gig.
She has brought in top civil servant Antonia Romeo to help her.
An insider said: “As this week shows, the dysfunction of the Home Office lives on – both Mahmood and Romeo have their work cut out.
“But Mahmood is intent on changing the Home Office so that it delivers her vision for the public.”
