PASSENGERS in private jets are “waved through” Durham Tees Valley (DTV) Airport without passport checks, it was claimed yesterday, in a fresh row over border security.

Leaked emails revealed that DTV is among a number of airports where staff are not “allowed physically to see the passengers” arriving on private charter flights.

Instead, under changes introduced quietly in January, pilots submit a list of their passengers before take-off – and only flights that “cause concern” are checked on arrival.

Labour said the revelation made a mockery of last week’s claim, by the beleaguered Home Secretary Theresa May, that “nobody would be waved through” because of relaxed border checks.

The new policy for private jets was only revealed after UK Border Agency (UKBA) staff at DTV protested that it could be “exploited by the unscrupulous”.

The emails, leaked to Labour, detailed how staff raised concerns that they are no longer “allowed physically to see the passengers” arriving on private charter flights.

One worried official wrote: “We’ve no way of checking whether the handling agent information is correct, or even if the number of people on the plane matches the number we’ve been advised.”

But, answering an urgent question in the Commons, Immigration Minister Damian Green defended the use of intelligence- led checks against high-risk passengers, telling MPs: “These measures were aimed at strengthening our border.”

Insisting the claim that any passenger on a private flight is waved through was “simply wrong”, he added: “It’s safer to check it before it arrives.

All private flights are checked against the warnings index before they arrive.”

And, arguing that high-risk flights were missed under Labour’s approach, Mr Green added: “This left our country open to the risk of drug smuggling, illegal immigration and gun running.”

The emails were revealed only hours before Brodie Clark, the former head of the UK Border Force, told the Home Affairs Select Committee he did not extend border control trials, in defiance of Mrs May.

Meanwhile, the Home Secretary confirmed that separate checks – on the biometric passports of EU travellers on commercial flights – were suspended at both DTV and Newcastle Airport during the summer.

The lower “level two”

checks were used hundreds of times each week at 28 airports across the country, rising to 260 occasions in one week in September.

Yesterday, Shaun Woods, DTV’s airport manager, also sought to calm any fears that private charter flights were escaping checks.

Mr Woods said only passengers from within the European Economic Area were allowed to go through “pre-arrival” checks, supplying their name, nationality, date of birth and passport details.

He added: “I want people to know that any suggestion passengers or crew could pass through the airport without undergoing the appropriate checks required by the UKBA is plain wrong.”

But Yvette Cooper, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, said.

“The Home Secretary told us that no one had been waved through without checks this summer. But these documents show passengers on private flights weren’t even seen.”

Flak flies in border saga controversy.

THE Home Secretary was fighting for her political life last night after an attack by Brodie Clark reignited the row over relaxed border controls.

Two weeks after he was suspended, the ousted head of UK Border Force insisted Theresa May was wrong to claim he flouted her instructions – thereby allowing countless travellers into Britain unchecked.

Mr Clark told the home affairs committee: 􀁥 He did not defy Mrs May’s orders when, over the summer, he lifted some checks on visitors from outside the EU at airports including Durham and Newcastle.

􀁥 Checks were relaxed under guidance dating back to 2007 that allowed it to happen for health and safety reasons.

􀁥 Mrs May had “destroyed” his reputation, built up over 40 years in the civil service, telling MPs: “I am no rogue officer. Nothing could be further from the truth”.

􀁥 He had been offered early retirement and a £100,000 payoff, as an alternative to being suspended – an offer that was later withdrawn by the Home Office’s permanent secretary.

􀁥 He gave weekly updates to ministers on border checks, meeting Mrs May on a monthly basis until recently.

Mr Clark, who resigned last week, said: “I introduced no additions to the Home Secretary’s trial, neither did I extend or alter it in any way whatsoever.”

But Mrs May was bolstered by Rob Whiteman, the UKBA’s chief executive, who said he had been correct to suspend Mr Clark because his position was “completely inconsistent”.

Ministers had refused to lift some fingerprint checks as part of their new trial, only for Mr Clark to suspend those checks on health and safety grounds, under existing guidance.

Mr Whiteman said it was unacceptable, in those circumstances, to say “I’m doing it anyway, under a policy you don’t know about”.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said David Cameron had “full confidence” in Mrs May.