Grant Shapps says there were concerns people were being illegally detained when he was briefly home secretary.
Image source, Getty ImagesGrant Shapps has said the Manston asylum processing site was “tipping into becoming an unofficial detention centre” when he briefly served as home secretary last month.
He told BBC Breakfast he received “very clear” advice when he took over from Suella Braverman after she resigned.
Mr Shapps said there were concerns people were “unintentionally being detained”, which would not be legal.
The government has been criticised for the severe overcrowding at Manston.
At one point at the end of last month there were believed to be around 4,000 migrants at the site in Kent – despite the centre being designed to accommodate only 1,600 people on a temporary basis.
Ms Braverman has denied ignoring legal advice or blocking the use of hotels to ease the pressure at Manston.
Mr Shapps, who is now business secretary, served as home secretary for six days after the resignation of Ms Braverman over data breaches in the final days of Liz Truss’s premiership.
He told BBC Breakfast that, during his time as home secretary, “what I saw was a situation whereby a centre that was set up to be a processing centre… was tipping into becoming an unofficial detention centre”.
He said he was keen to ensure the government remained within the law and made changes to the operation of the site “to ensure that it wasn’t a detention centre”, while also moving people out.
He added: “Those are decisions that I very quickly made. Actually, the home secretary subsequently has continued to make the same changes to make sure that those numbers are brought down.”