Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Brandon Lewis – Rudd did not set targets for deportation

The fallout of the Windrush scandal has continued from the previous week, with Home Secretary Amber Rudd still in the firing line and facing calls to resign. Rudd has been criticised after telling the Home Affairs Select Committee on Tuesday that the Home Office did not set targets for removals of illegal migrants to the UK. However, a memorandum leaked to the Guardian states that the Home Office had actually exceeded a quota of ‘12,800 enforced returns in 2017-18’, which Rudd later apologised for not having been aware of. Conservative party chairman Brandon Lewis, who was the minister responsible for immigration at the time, took to the Andrew Marr Show to defend his former boss:

AM: You had these figures, you knew about the memo… Did you discuss any of this with Amber Rudd as Immigration Minister?

BL: I was working with her on a weekly basis to make sure that we were doing everything we could – working with the police, working with local government to help vulnerable people, to crack down on criminals, and to remove more people who are here illegally. And yes, I did talk to the Home Secretary about that, and the overall work that we were doing and the overall ambition to see [a 10%] increase in numbers, but not on the detailed numbers and targets.

AM: So she knew there were targets therefore?

BL: No, what the Home Secretary was very aware of was her ambition to see an increase in the [removals] of people who were here illegally, particularly those foreign national offenders… but those internal targets were not in the memo and not figures that she was aware of.

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