Voters may see Tory asylum plans as sign of determination – or disarray

Some advisers are gleeful about leak, believing public spat over immigration plays well for party

Migrant camps on distant islands; decommissioned ferries kitted out to process asylum seekers; floating booms in the Channel. The government's blue skies" plans for tackling an influx of people arriving in small boats via continental Europe have appalled human rights campaigners and sparked a briefing war.

One over-excited Whitehall source" told the Politico Playbook newsletter, which is well-read among Westminster insiders, that the leaks had come from a rotten core of civil servants" who were the enemy within and will be rooted out".