Minister ‘aware of scandal 2 years ago’

THE Government knew about the damaging impact of its socalled ‘hostile environment’ policy on Windrush immigrants years before the scandal broke, a leaked letter suggests.

In May 2016, a senior Home Office minister wrote a letter explaining why members of the Windrush generation were liable to be deported.

The letter relates to the case of Trevor Johnson, who arrived as a boy from Jamaica in 1971 but was told in 2014 that he was in Britain illegally.

It was sent by James Brokenshire, then immigration minister, to Labour MP Kate Hoey – who had alerted the Home Office to the case of her constituent Mr Johnson.

The letter said Mr Johnson’s application for citizenship had been rejected because he ‘failed to provide the Home Office with evidence to show he was in the UK prior to 1973’.

It added he could not provide documentary evidence to the Home Office demanded of continuous residence over other periods in the 1980s and 1990s.

Mr Johnson has faced threats of deportation, while his brother Desmond has not been allowed to visit Britain since he went back to Jamaica for his father’s funeral in 2001.

Mr Brokenshire served as Minister for Security and Immigration from 2014 to 2016, while Theresa May was Home Secretary.

Yesterday, Mr Brokenshire was asked about the letter on ITV’s Peston on Sunday programme. He said he had not seen it before.