Memo that shows Rudd did know of deportation targets
Home Secretary clings to job after week of gaffes
Amber rudd was fighting for her job last night after a leaked memo suggested the Home Secretary had been told about the deportation targets she claimed to know nothing about.
An internal Home Office document was sent to her that referred to ‘a target of achieving 12,800 enforced returns in 2017/18’.
The memorandum was prepared by Hugh Ind, director-general of the Immigration enforcement agency, last June and copied to miss rudd and thenimmigration minister brandon Lewis.
It flies in the face of the Home Secretary’s claim earlier this week that she was ‘not aware’ of any targets and had ‘never agreed that there should be specific removal targets’.
Last night shadow home secretary Diane Abbott called for miss rudd to resign immediately.
but Lord blunkett, a former Labour home secretary, said it would not be in the best interests of the country for her to go because she helped maintain the remain-Leave balance in the Cabinet.
miss rudd was a prominent remainer and this week appeared to suggest britain could stay in the customs union after leaving the eU – contrary to official policy.
It is believed Theresa may is keen to keep miss rudd in post because she acts as a firewall as the Pm faces questions over her own handling of migration as home secretary.
miss rudd, who became Home Secretary in July 2016, initially denied targets were used when questioned on Wednesday by the Commons’ home affairs select committee as it investigated the Windrush scandal.
Then, after it emerged a 2015 inspection report said the practice did exist, miss rudd told mPs on Thursday that she had not agreed to targets and ‘would never support a policy that puts targets ahead of people’.
but the new memo – obtained by The Guardian – said progress had been made on a ‘ path towards the 10 per cent increased performance on enforced returns, which we promised the Home Secretary earlier this year’.
The document, dated June 21, 2017, was described as a ‘summary of performance’ by the Immigration enforcement (Ie) agency. It said there had been 12,503 enforced returns in 201617, which was considered a ‘success given the particularly damaging impact’ from the number of late claims for asylum.
The memo goes on: ‘Ie has set a target of achieving 12,800 enforced returns in 2017/ 18, aided by the redistribution of resources towards this area.’
On ‘assisted returns’, such as when individuals leave britain voluntarily on a flight paid for by the Government, it stated: ‘Typically these will be our most vulnerable returnees. We have exceeded our target of assisted returns. We set an internal target of 1,250 of these returns for 2016-17… we delivered 1,581.’
It came after a former UK border Agency head said miss rudd’s claim to have not known about the removal targets was ‘disingenuous’. rob Whiteman, chief executive of the agency from 2011 to 2013, told radio 4’s Today programme that ministers would have seen internal documents referring to targets.
He said: ‘Fair’s fair, ministers could say, “We don’t actually set these targets, they are being set by the operations,” but I think it is disingenuous, surely, to suggest that they don’t know that they exist because they will have seen them.’
miss Abbott said: ‘ Amber rudd either failed to read this memo and has no clear understanding of the policies in her own department, or she has misled Parliament and the british people. either way, she needs to accept responsibility and resign immediately.’
Lord blunkett said he did not believe the issue was a resigning matter, but added that it was ‘pretty basic stuff when you appear in Parliament or in front of a select committee to be able to answer the questions.’ The Home Office did not respond to requests for comment.
‘It is pretty basic stuff’