Outrage as ex-mandarin brands crackdown ‘Nazi’
A FORMER head of the Civil Service was denounced yesterday for claiming ministers in the Coalition believed a crackdown on illegal immigration was ‘reminiscent of Nazi Germany’.
Lord Kerslake’s comments on a government strategy to create a ‘hostile environment’ for illegal immigrants caused fury.
The remarks were attacked by Jewish campaign groups and described as ‘appalling and distasteful’ by senior politicians. Lord Kerslake – a former Labour adviser nicknamed Bungalow Bob by critics who claim ‘he has little up top’ – spoke out on BBC2’s Newsnight.
He said ministers in the Coalition were so ‘deeply unhappy’ with changes brought in by Theresa May when Home Secretary they likened them to some of Hitler’s policies.
Legislation introduced in 2014 meant that without proof of the right to live in Britain, people could not rent homes, work, open bank accounts or hold driving licences. Critics say this led directly to the Windrush scandal engulfing the Government and threatening to topple Home Secretary Amber Rudd.
Lord Kerslake said the Immigration Act 2014 had ruffled feathers across Government. The crossbench peer, who ran the Civil Service from 2012 to 2014, added: ‘It was highly contested and there were some who saw it – I shan’t name them – as almost reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the way it’s working.’
Asked if he meant bureaucrats, he said: ‘No, some… ministers were deeply unhappy.’ Environment Secretary Michael Gove, who was a minister in the Coalition, rejected any comparison with the Nazis, telling Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I have never heard anyone make that comparison before Lord Kerslake.
‘It is not for me to criticise a distinguished former public servant, but I respectfully disagree.’
Former International Development Secretary Priti Patel said: ‘It is completely unacceptable and distasteful for Lord Kerslake to make these awful comments. They are wrong. The comparison with Nazi policies is even worse when we are having discussions in public life about anti-Semitism.’
A spokesman for the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism said: ‘The Holocaust was the determined, brutal murder of six million Jews, as well as many others. Those engaging in public debate should resist the urge to compare modernday acts to the Holocaust or Nazi policies unless they are relevant.’
The Home Office said yesterday that the number of Windrush cases being investigated had surged to 232. Four people have already been given permanent status.
Those from the Windrush generation – named after the ship that brought the first migrants from the West Indies in 1948 – who arrived from the Commonwealth before 1973 had the automatic right to stay. However, the Home Office did not keep a record of those allowed to stay or issue any documents confirming it – meaning many Windrush children lacked proof of citizenship. As a result, some have wrongly been identified as illegal immigrants and lost their jobs, homes, benefits and NHS care, then faced deportation.
No10 defended the changes, saying they had been debated by MPs at the time. Mrs May’s official spokesman said: ‘It is important that we have an immigration system which is robust and in which people can have faith.’
Mrs Rudd has set up a taskforce to speed up the regularisation of the status of Windrush citizens.
Mr Gove said polls showed the UK was more ‘welcoming’ to immigrants than any country in the EU.
But Labour MP David Lammy said this was disproved by the ‘horrendous, heartbreaking’ stories from Windrush families, adding: ‘Every arm of the state has been co-opted into a punitive immigration regime.’
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