Rudd’s Oxford snub over her Windrush links
AMBER Rudd told of her disgust at being blatantly snubbed by Oxford University students last night over her links to the Windrush scandal.
Miss Rudd, who was Home Secretary when the scandal broke in 2018, had planned to deliver a speech encouraging young women to get involved in politics before International Women’s Day on Sunday.
But she arrived last night to an empty hall after Felicity Graham, president of the UNWomen Oxford society, which organised the event, was forced to cancel amid severe criticism from fellow members and students.
The UNWomen Oxford society’s 13- strong committee approved sending an invitation to Miss Rudd in Janaury.
But Miss Graham started to come under intense pressure on Monday from students who said the event should be scrapped because of Miss Rudd’s links to Windrush.
She told the Mail she was adamant the event should go ahead, but received a call 30 minutes before the event was due to start last night from the committee which said they no longer supported the invitation. Miss Graham said: ‘It was ultimately my decision but every single person on the committee was against and I was given no choice.
‘I was adamant we weren’t going to cancel because I think she was a great feminist to be platforming and because she has worked on UN campaigns, it seemed right. It was the Oxford African and Caribbean Society – who hold a lot of power – who really applied the pressure and forced us to cancel.’
The snub is the latest in a series of figures being ‘no-plat-formed’ – denied a chance to speak – at universities across the UK by students who deem them too controversial.
Miss Rudd said: ‘It was supposed to be all about International Women’s Day, to inspire young women to get into politics. This is outrageous and so disappointing. These young women want to engage and campaign and become politicians and so they shouldn’t be hiding away, they should be talking to me and I would have taken any of the issues they raised with me very seriously.
‘ But to cancel at the last minute is terrible behaviour and a terrible sign of the way they think they can engage with other political women.
‘ Oxford should be a place where they explore ideas and have the highest standards. They are just damaging their own reputation and it’s disgusting that they’re behaving in this way.
She added: ‘I would have been quite content to talk to them about Windrush in terms of how it came to pass, what action I took to try to make sure it was corrected and never happens again and my deep regret it happened at all. I want to share what happened honestly and fairly.’
Miss Rudd said she gave a similar speech at the University of St Andrews in Scotland last week, and was approached by students who said it had inspired them to pursue getting into Parliament.
‘These students need to rethinking their approach to how they handle people.’
Miss Rudd resigned as Home Secretary over the Windrush scandal, which saw those of Caribbean heritage who arrived between 1948 and 1971 wrongly detained, threatened with deportation or wrongly refused re-entry to the UK.
‘This is terrible behaviour’