Illegal migrant had Parliament job

Elaine Chaves Aparecida, 31, was only caught last week as she tried to gain access using someone else's security pass.

The latest highly-embarrassing lapse to hit the Government is revealed in a confidential memo to Home Office minister Liam Byrne that was leaked to the Sunday Telegraph. And the document advises ministers to keep quiet about the incident unless asked by the media "given recent coverage of security guards employed illegally at Government offices".

In December a member of security staff at the Home Office itself was arrested after being exposed as an illegal immigrant. The memo, marked "restricted", was sent on the day of the arrest, January 31, by Border and Immigration Agency (BIA) regional director Tony Smith to the minister and BIA chief Lin Homer.

It said post-arrest checks found that Ms Aparecida was known to the authorities, having fled officials at Heathrow airport in December 2004 before they could bar her entry to the UK. Despite that, she had "started work at the Houses of Parliament on 3 December 2007 as an employee of Emprise Services", it said.

The official admitted that at the time of writing, he did not have details of the pass or who it belonged to "but enquiries are ongoing".

A new pass system has been introduced to Parliament this year which requires a pin code to be entered in order to gain entry. Under the heading "handling/level of controversy" the memo gives guidance which is bound to spark claims of an attempted cover-up of the major security breach.

"High. We will take a reactive approach to media given recent coverage of security guards employed illegally at Government offices".

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was forced to admit in December that more than 11,000 illegal workers may have been cleared to get jobs as security guards. The blunders emerged only after officials realised the Security Industry Authority (SIA) had not been checking whether applicants were entitled to work in Britain.