John Vine, the Government’s chief inspector of immigration, highlighted the failings of security staff in a highly critical report.

It followed a study of the immigration and customs operation Gatwick Airport’s North Terminal last summer.

It was Mr Vine who disclosed the unauthorised relaxation of immigration checks which heaped embarrassment on Theresa May, the Home Secretary, and led to Brodie Clark being forced out of his job as Border Force.

He found a series of irregularities in the way in which searches were being conducted, which were not only discriminatory, with Afro-Caribbean women being singled out, but were also not recorded properly.

“Although the majority of person searches involved men, women were significantly more likely to be subject to a strip search than men if a search was undertaken.”