RUDDY AWFUL
After betraying Windrush Brits, Ma y hides behind Home Sec as Tories FINALLY try to fix damage
THERESA May has been accused of letting Home Secretary Amber Rudd take the blame for the Windrush fiasco.
Ms Rudd was forced into a humiliating climbdown yesterday, saying victims were “let down” and promising compensation. The SNP’s Joanna Cherry said Ms Rudd was “being used as a human shield” for policies created by the PM.
MINISTERS made a huge climbdown last night as they vowed payouts for Windrush migrants threatened with deportation.
Each case is painful to hear, but often harrowing for the people involved AMBER RUDD THE HOME SEC APOLOGISES FOR WINDRUSH
Home Secretary Amber Rudd confirmed Commonwealth citizens from the Caribbean, who lost jobs, homes or benefits after being told they could be booted out of Britain, would receive compensation.
“Each individual case is painful to hear, but so much more painful, often harrowing, for the people involved. The state has let these people down,” Ms Rudd said, adding she wanted “to put these wrongs right”.
Fees and language tests will be waived for anyone from the Windrush generation who wants to apply for UK citizenship, she told the Commons.
Gretel Gorcan, 81, who has been unable to return to her home in London for the past nine years because of the scandal, said it was “great news”.
She had lived in the UK for 59 years, but became stuck in Jamaica after a trip for her sister’s funeral. She said last night: “I am delighted it appears help may now be at hand.” The Home Office said it is “looking urgently into her case”.
Moves to curb illegal immigration had triggered “unintended and sometimes devastating” consequences for legal migrants, said Ms Rudd. She added: “An apology is just the first step to put right the wrong these people have suffered.”
Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott made a personal attack on Ms Rudd, saying: “She is the Home Secretary. She allowed it to happen.” She added: “These cases can’t come as a surprise to her because for some time many of my colleagues have been pursuing individual cases.”
People with every right to live and work in the UK had been separated from friends and family “in breach of their human rights”, the Commons heard.
Ms Abbott went on: “My parents, brothers and sisters and cousins largely worked in the National Health Service, in factories and London transport.
“This was a generation with unparalleled commitment to the country, unparalleled pride in being British, unparalleled commitment to hard work.”
SNP home affairs spokeswoman Joanna Cherry blamed PM Theresa May for the fiasco during her time as Home Secretary. She said Ms Rudd was “being used… as a human shield to protect the Prime Minister from the repugnant consequences of policies the Prime Minister authored”.
In the Lords, Floella Benjamin – the former children’s TV presenter – branded it “a national shame”.