Image source, Getty Images Image caption,

There were protests outside the Manston centre over the weekend

By Becky Morton

BBC political reporter

Grant 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 severe overcrowding at Manston.

Ms Braverman, who was reappointed as home secretary by Rishi Sunak, has denied ignoring legal advice or blocking the use of hotels to ease the pressure at the site in Kent.

At one point at the end of last month there were believed to be around 4,000 migrants at Manston - despite the centre being designed to accommodate only 1,600 people on a temporary basis.

BBC political correspondent Nick Eardley said Mr Shapps's comments "potentially open up a fresh can of worms" for Ms Braverman as they make an "implicit accusation" that she did not do everything she could have done to move people to alternative accommodation and ensure the government was complying with the law.

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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 at the Home Office, "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."

The government is facing a potential court battle over the safety of women and children at Manston, after legal action claimed there was routine and prolonged unlawful detention at the facility.

The former RAF base was set up as a short-term holding site, with no overnight accommodation, meaning officials can not normally keep anyone there beyond 24 hours.

The government has blamed the large number of people crossing the English Channel in small boats for the pressure on the asylum system.

So far this year, almost 40,000 people have made the dangerous journey - the highest number since figures began to be collected in 2018.

The issue will be discussed by Prime Minister Mr Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron when they meet at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt.

"The more that we can work with our partners in France to stop people from leaving those shores in the first place, the better," Mr Shapps said, adding that reducing the numbers crossing the Channel would "relieve the pressures" in the UK.

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