Lees-Galloway decided on Sroubek in just a couple of hours

The Herald reports:

Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway has admitted he took only hours to make the decision to cancel deportation liability and grant residency to Czech criminal Karel Sroubek.

In Parliament today, under questioning from National, Lees-Galloway confirmed he met his officials at 4.30pm on October 19 and made his decision that day.

A letter confirming that decision, dated October 19, was then sent to Sroubek’s lawyer on October 21, he said.

“I made the decision, on that day, using the information that I had available to me,” Lees-Galloway said.

The PM said it was a very carefully considered decision. Yeah right.

The decision to grant Sroubek, also known as Jan Antolik, residency under his real name has been described by Lees-Galloway as one of the most difficult decisions he has ever made and, that difficulty has been reiterated by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.

That’s nonsense. It wasn’t difficult. It wasn’t finely balanced. He was a convicted drug smuggler and fraudster. He had an unverified implausible claim about the Czech Republic that the Minister swallowed in a fit of gullibility.

Lees-Galloway has also admitted he didn’t read the full file. Now in simple cases you might not. But in a case involving a convicted drug dealer which you now claim was the most difficult decision you’ve ever made, it looks negligent to have only skimmed the file.