Originally Posted by cauchy

At Stansted this weekend, tried to go straight to the desks and skip the e-gates, and the airport official threatened me with armed police for this! It seemed a bit extreme, so I didn't take the airport official up on this offer.

Border Force later confirmed that the "attempt the e-gates first" is an airport rather than Border Force policy. Not sure why the airport can dictate things like this - luckily will be able to avoid Stansted for the foreseeable future.