Tories attack Smith over 'cover-up'

In a statement to the House of Commons, Ms Smith confirmed she was told in July, within weeks of taking up her post, that many non-European nationals may have been granted licences by the Security Industry Authority without checks that they had the right to work in the UK.

But she denied a cover-up, saying she did not inform MPs or the public, because the scale of the problem was not clear at that point. Even Prime Minister Gordon Brown - whose car was at one point guarded by an illegal worker - was not initially told of the problem, she revealed.

Ms Smith was forced to appear before MPs after the publication of leaked memos showing she agreed with advice from Home Office officials in August that news of the problem should be kept secret. In the event, it was revealed in press reports last weekend.

To jeers from the Conservative benches, Ms Smith told the Commons: "My approach was that the responsible thing to do was to establish the full nature and scale of the problem and take appropriate action to deal with it, rather than immediately to put incomplete and potentially misleading information into the public domain."

But Shadow Home Secretary David Davis, who has faced three home secretaries in his time in the post, said that the issue arose just days after Mr Brown's arrival in Downing Street with a promise of a new "frank and candid" approach to government.

"The response of the Home Office so far has been blunder, panic and cover-up... The Prime Minister spoke of frank and candid government, yet in one of her first actions as Home Secretary, she put avoiding political embarrassment ahead of solving the problem and informing the public."

Ms Smith - who has received Mr Brown's backing - replied: "I don't make any apologies to this House for being the sort of minister whose first reaction to an issue is not 'What should I say about it? but 'What should I do about it?' That's what I have done."

Concerns were first raised in April by the Border and Immigration Agency, after it found 44 illegals working for a security company, including 12 who were guarding locations for the Metropolitan Police, said the Home Secretary.

On July 2, the SIA introduced a new check on the immigration status of all non-Europeans applying for a licence to work as a security guard, resulting in the rejection of 740 out of 32,500 applicants since that date.