Me callous? Labour was Windrush generation’s
A CONTROVERSIAL decision to destroy vital travel documents in the Windrush scandal was taken under the last Labour government, Theresa May insisted yesterday.
Fighting back against accusations of “callous and incompetent” behaviour under her watch, the Prime Minister told MPs that a proposal for disposing of paperwork relating to the arrival of migrants from the Caribbean in the UK was approved before she took over at the Home Office.
But she apologised again on behalf of the Government for the blunders that have left thousands of people generation” after the Empire Windrush, a cruise liner that brought in one of the first groups of West Indian migrants after the war.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn demanded to know whether Mrs May had signed off the decision to destroy the landing cards in 2010 when she was Home Secretary.
She told him: “No, the decision to destroy the landing cards was taken in 2009 under a Labour Government when, as I seem to recall, a Labour home secretary was in position.”
But Mr Corbyn hit back: “It was under a Tory Government, and she was Home Secretary at that time, and that is what is causing such pain and stress. This is a shameful episode and the responsibility for it lies firmly at the Prime Minister’s door.”
He added that under Mrs May the Home Office became “heartless and hopeless” and now her Government was “callous and incompetent”.
A Home Office spokesman later confirmed the decision to destroy millions of pieces of paperwork was taken in June 2009 under Gordon Brown’s government to save cash.
It was not clear who was home secretary as the job passed from Jacqui Smith to Alan Johnson that month.
But the Home Office insisted the decision was taken “operationally” at the UK Border Agency and was not passed up to ministers for approval.
At the start of PMQs, Mrs May repeated an apology she gave earlier this week. She said: “I want to be clear that we have no intention of asking anyone to leave who has the right to remain here. For those who have mistakenly received letters challenging them, I want to apologise to them.”
The current Home Secretary Amber Rudd is setting up a team to investigate cases and will be quizzed by the Commons Home Affairs Committee.
Officials said a total of 113 people have so far rung a new hotline for Commonwealth citizens whose immigration status has been challenged.
Jamaican prime minister Andrew Holness called for compensation for those affected, while St Kitts and Nevis foreign minister Mark Brantley said Theresa May was “best placed to deal with this fiasco”.
FURY AT LORDS
UNELECTED peers have provoked fury by passing a wrecking amendment in a bid to derail Brexit.
The amendment forces the Government to make a statement on staying in a customs union with the EU.
Lord Forsyth warned: “What is going on here is an exercise by Remainers in the House who refuse to accept the verdict of the British people.”
Fellow Tory, Lord Lawson dismissed Remainers’ claims that the single market had not been debated during the 2016 EU referendum.
The Government suffered a second defeat in the Lords last night in a vote over protecting people’s employment, equality, health and safety and consumer standards after Brexit.