THERE COULD BE A SILVER LINING TO THE WINDRUSH SCANDAL

When UK civil servants drew up plans for this week’s summit of Commonwealth leaders in London and Windsor, their themes included “a fairer future, promoting the principles enshrined in the Commonwealth charter of democracy, good governance, human rights and the rule of law”. Oh dear.

What was supposed to the biggest and best international conference held in Britain turned into a presentational disaster. Worse still, one created by Theresa May.

The heart-rending stories of people in the Windrush generation invited to the UK in the 1950s and 1960s, who have lost jobs and NHS treatment and faced deportation, can be traced back to the “hostile environment” strategy May pursued as Home Secretary. True, it was aimed at illegal immigrants. But it created a presumption that people were here wrongly unless they could prove otherwise, so those with every right to stay were scandalously treated as illegals.

It is no use ministers blaming civil servants. As Margaret Thatcher said: “Advisers advise and ministers decide.” Lucy Moreton, general secretary of the ISU union representing immigration staff and a former chief immigration oficer at Heathrow airport, said it was “deeply unfair” to blame oficials acting on instructions from their political masters.

May’s approach was also a result of the target to reduce net migration below 100,000 a year, a igure the Conservatives plucked out of thin air in 2010. It meant the Home Ofice scrabbled around for every device to chip away at the numbers – even though the Tories’ Liberal Democrat coalition partners warned them the target was unachievable. While removing illegals would not help meet the target, the climate meant those entitled to be in the UK were caught in the net because of the colour of their skin. I’m not saying it was deliberately racist. But it was an unintended consequence of May’s strategy. How ironic, coming from the politician who admitted in 2002 that the Tories were seen as “the nasty party”.

The Windrush scandal, which shames the UK, may yet have a silver lining. It could strengthen the hand of ministers, led by Amber Rudd, the home secretary, trying to steer the Tories towards a more liberal immigration policy. she is warming to the idea of issuing an annual report on migration, which has been proposed by the Home Affairs Select Committee as a way to build consensus, tackle myths and spell out the cost and beneits of immigration at local and national level.

Rudd will likely win her battle to remove overseas students from the migration igures; May is isolated in her own cabinet on that. The same is true of the discredited target, which should now be killed off once and for all.

While we should welcome a change of heart by the Tories on immigration, it is not coming for entirely altruistic reasons. It is dawning on them that they will struggle to win an election as their elderly supporters literally die out if they fail to appeal to a younger generation more relaxed about immigration.

Of course, the Windrush scandal will only make perceptions of the Tories even worse. If they do not adopt a more sensible immigration policy, they will pay a very heavy price.