Priti fury at stars’ insult to victims of Windrush scandal
Outrage at fight by celebrities to keep Jamaican killers and rapists in the UK
PRITI Patel l ast night accused Labour MPs and ‘do-gooding’ celebrities of f insulting victims of the Windrush scandal.
She said it was ‘deeply offensive’ to liken those unjustly caught up in the fiasco to the Jamaican rapists, murderers and thugs trying to avoid being kicked out of Britain.
‘The Windrush scandal is a stain n on our country’s history,’ said the Home Secretary.
‘That generation made an enormous contribution to our country and were wronged by successive governments.
‘To see ill-informed Labour politicians and do-gooding celebrities attempting to conflate the victims of Windrush with these vile criminals set for deportation is not only misjudged and upsetting but deeply offensive.’
Under the Windrush scandal, which began to emerge in 2017, Caribbean migrants living legally in Britain were wrongly targeted by the Home Office for removal, even though they were entirely innocent.
The scandal was invoked by Labour MPs and celebrities lobbying to stop the deportation of dozens of serious offenders.
Supermodel Naomi Campbell, Line of Duty star Thandie Newton and James Bond actress Naomie Harris were among those to sign an open letter calling on the Government to delay this week’s removals to Jamaica.
All of the offenders were born on the island and none was a British citizen.
More than 60 MPs, mostly from the Labour Party, had urged Miss Pat el to abandon the flight, saying of the criminals: ‘Britain is their home.’
Labour backbencher Kim Johnson described the deportation as ‘obscene and irresponsible’.
Holly Lynch, the party’s immigration spokesman, mentioned Windrush ten times when she challenged Home Office minister Chris Philp on the issue this week.
He said it was ‘completely wrong to conflate the people who were victims of terrible injustice in the Win
‘They have no right to be here’
drush cases with these cases who are nothing to do with Windrush’.
Miss Patel said: ‘This Government will never stand in solidarity with rapists and murderers and we remain committed to removing these foreign criminals from our country. They have violated our laws and have no right to be here.’
In the year to June, 5,208 offenders were forcibly returned to their home countries.
Of those 2,630 were sent to EU states and just 33 to Jamaica, Mr Philp told the Commons.
Thirteen criminals were deported to Jamaica on Wednesday but lawyers for another 23 succeeded in having them removed from the aircraft’s passenger list.
In February this year, Fabian Henry won an 11th hour reprieve from deportation. He was jailed for 12 years in 2013 for raping a 17year-old girl twice and abducting and having sex with a girl of 15 while on bail.