The Home Secretary cut a solemn figure in the Commons today as she attempted to clear up the Windrush immigration mess. After a weekend of torrid headlines and claims the Home Office knew of the problem long before they acted, Amber Rudd tried to make amends.
Rudd apologised again before attempting to spread the blame – claiming the current situation (by which Caribbean migrants who came to the UK between 1948 and 1973 have wrongly been threatened with deportation) was the result of successive governments introducing measures to combat illegal immigration. She acknowledged the ‘unintended and devastating’ impact these errors had had on the families and promised speedy compensation. Rudd added that UK citizenship fees and language tests will be waived for the Windrush generation and their families.
Usually after a scandal of this size a resignation would be expected. However, although Labour have been calling for Rudd to go – and just today Diane Abbott said the ‘buck stopped’ with the Home Secretary – there are no P45s doing the rounds in Whitehall. While the whole episode has cast the government in a cold, uncaring and incompetent light, there is no single person that can be easily blamed. A sizeable number of Conservatives think the buck really stops with Theresa May – Rudd’s predecessor in the Home Office. It was under May that a previous clause that protected longstanding Commonwealth residents of the UK from deportation was left out of the 2014 Immigration Act. But given that the main culprit is now the Prime Minister, don’t hold your breath for a resignation anytime soon.
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