Home secretary Suella Braverman risks inflaming the migration row with plans for vulnerable child refugees to undergo X-rays to verify their age.
The move comes after Rishi Sunak, the prime minister, told cabinet that he wanted Britain to be a “compassionate, welcoming country”, distancing himself from the home secretary’s controversial claim that the UK was being subjected to an “invasion” by asylum seekers.
As counterterrorist police took charge of the investigation into the firebombing of a separate immigration facility in Kent, it emerged that Ms Braverman’s incendiary remark had not been cleared with No 10. And Mr Sunak’s official spokesperson declined to say whether the PM regarded it as appropriate.
