More than 9,000 illegal immigrants could have been cleared to work in the private security industry, some of them guarding sensitive Whitehall locations and some even under Metropolitan Police contracts, it emerged last night.

The full scale of the potential risk from the failure of security firms to carry out proper checks on their employees surfaced as Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, fought off claims that she had engaged in a “cover-up” of the problem when the information became known to her in July.

In a combative Commons performance she said that she made no apology for being the sort of minister whose first reaction was not what she should say about an issue but what she should do about it. Her priority had been to establish the full scale of the problem and to take robust action. She had not told the Prime Minister at the time because there had been no blunder, no system failure in the Home Office, and she had embarked on action to strengthen procedures.

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