HOME Secretary Charles Clarke has warned Kent may not be entitled to £14.8million in grants the county council says it is owed for looking after asylum seekers.

Mr Clarke suggested Kent County Council may have got its sums wrong and the Government was not prepared to hand over any money until it had properly audited the authority’s claim.

Kent County Council is threatening legal action in its bid to recover the money and will be dismayed by the Home Secretary’s remarks.

In an exclusive interview with the Kent Messenger Group, Mr Clarke said: “It is true that Kent is among those authorities that have borne more costs than others, chiefly because of unaccompanied minors.

"But we do not recognise their claim of £14.8million. We do not think it is an accurate picture and we are going through the claim and will give our decision when the audit process is complete."

He added that Kent had already received special payments for looking after child asylum seekers. The longer-term solution to the problem was to take steps to stop asylum seekers from evading border controls.

The county council has written to the director of the National Asylum Support Service – the Government agency charged with managing the dispersal of asylum seekers – giving it 28 days to come up with the money.

In a strongly-worded letter to NASS director Jeremy Oppenheim, KCC’s solicitor Geoff Wild says: “There has been a signal failure by government to honour its promises and assurances given in respect of the funding to be provided to this council. The position has now reached a critical point whereby unless a resolution is found, legal action will become inevitable.”

In the interview, Mr Clarke admitted that he was disappointed that the number of failed asylum seekers being removed from the UK had dropped slightly.

“There was some encouraging news on asylum seeker applications but discouraging news on removal of failed asylum seekers.”