Windrush scandal claims minister
right to settle in the UK. But some have been ensnared by tough new rules introduced since 2012 that were intended to make Britain a ‘‘hostile environment’’ for illegal immigrants.
Legal migrants have been denied housing, jobs or medical treatment because of requirements that landlords, employers and doctors check people’s immigration status. Others have been told by the government that they are in Britain illegally and must leave.
‘‘What has happened to the Windrush generation isn’t an anomaly. It’s not due to an administrative error. It’s a consequence of the hostile environment created by this (Conservative) government,’’ London Mayor Sadiq Khan, a member of the opposition Labour Party, said yesterday.
The policy was introduced at a time when May, now the prime minister, was home secretary.
The opposition Liberal Democrat party’s home affairs spokesman, Ed Davey, said Rudd had become ‘‘the fall guy to protect the prime minister.’’
In recent weeks Rudd and May have apologised repeatedly to the Windrush generation, saying all pre1973 Commonwealth immigrants who don’t already have British citizenship will get it, and those affected will get compensation.
Rudd’s position worsened after she told lawmakers last week that the government did not have targets for deporting people — only for a 2017 memo to emerge that mentioned specific targets for ‘‘enforced removals.’’
Rudd said she didn’t see the memo, but The Guardian later published a leaked letter she wrote to the prime minister discussing an aim of increasing removals by 10 per cent.
In a resignation letter to the prime minister, Rudd said she had ‘‘inadvertently’’ misled lawmakers.
May said she accepted that Rudd had spoken ‘‘in good faith’’ and was sorry to see her resign.
-AP