Jeremy Corbyn has called for the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, to resign over a “cruel and misdirected” immigration policy that the Labour leader said was responsible for the hardships faced by the Windrush generation.
Using all of his time at prime minister’s questions to focus on Windrush for the second successive week, the Labour leader lambasted Theresa May and her ministers for what he said was an inadequate response to the crisis, and a failure to realise her so-called ‘hostile environment’ immigration stance had triggered it.
May repeatedly declined to concede any connection, saying the plight of the Windrush community had been created purely because some were not given documentary evidence of their right to remain in the UK when they arrived decades before.
With the government still under intense pressure and a cascade of new cases still emerging, Corbyn cited a private memo by Rudd to May in which the home secretary pledged to give officials more “teeth” to hunt down and deport thousands more illegal migrants.
May herself “knew full well of the problems the Windrush generations were facing”, Corbyn said, noting that the prime minister had introduced the hostile environment policy when she was home secretary.
“At last she’s been forced to act upon it,” Corbyn said. “Last week, the current home secretary admitted the Home Office sometimes loses sight of the individual. Yet we now know that when she took over from her predecessor, her intent was to harden this cruel and misdirected policy, pledging to do so ruthlessly.”
He added: “The current home secretary inherited a failing policy and made it worse. Isn’t it time she took responsibility and resigned?”
May rejected this, and instead cited previous comments by Labour MPs including Yvette Cooper and Liam Byrne in support of May’s then stance on immigration.
“What we are talking about is whether or not we should deal with illegal immigration, and up and down this country. The public will tell him we should deal with illegal immigration,” the prime minister said.
May rejected any connection between her policies and the Windrush generation, saying they were British and had the right to live here from the moment they arrived. She said: “The problem at the time is that they were not documented with that right, and that is what we are now putting right.”
Corbyn also quizzed May on plans to compensate Windrush migrants who lost jobs, pensions or benefits after being wrongly targeted by immigration officials. “The government is committed to compensation in theory, but as yet nothing in practice,” he said.
“There’s an understandable lack of trust by the Windrush generation – so can the prime minister today be clear and confirm that those British citizens who have worked and paid taxes here for decades, wrongly denied pensions and benefits, will be fully compensated?”
May responded by saying Rudd would “set out the details of that compensation scheme in due course”.
Corbyn said May had ignored repeated warnings by officials and Labour MPs about the effect of the hostile environment policy on some legal residents.
“Had the Windrush generation not mounted the campaign that they have, had members on this side of the house not raised the matter persistently, there would be no compensation, there would have been no review, there would been no apology,” he said.
May also faced pressure over Windrush from Cooper, who protested at the prime minister having cited her as supporting a tough immigration enforcement regime.
“Let me say to the prime minister: do not try to hide behind me or the Labour party, when she was warned repeatedly that the damage her obsession with the net migration target was doing,” Cooper, the former shadow home secretary, said.
“Do not try to hide behind the Cabinet when they don’t agree with you on this and are trying to clear up the mess. And do not try to hide behind civil servants when she set the policies, instilled in them the culture of disbelief.”
She added: “A few years ago the prime minister said, ‘I’m actually sick and tired of a government minister who simply blames other people when something goes wrong.’ What’s changed?”
Speaking earlier yesterday, the Children and Families Minister, Nadhim Zahawi, pledged that all Windrush cases would be dealt with within two weeks.
Home Secretary Amber Rudd leaves 10 Downing Street in central London yesterday.
