Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Labour demands full inquiry into Rudd shambles
Abbott’s blast at ‘rotten’ May Govt
LABOUR have urged Theresa May to launch a full inquiry into the immigration scandal engulfing Amber Rudd’s Home Office.
Senior Opposition figures accuse the Home Secretary of losing control of her department, breaching the ministerial code and misleading the public.
They say the Windrush row has “exposed something rotten” at the heart of the Government and are demanding that Ms Rudd either resign or be sacked.
Meanwhile the furore escalated further as ex-Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis was caught up in it amid claims he lied about what he knew.
In an explosive letter to the PM, Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott said: “Serious questions remain over what the Home Secretary was told about targets for removals.
“The Prime Minister must launch a full inquiry to get to the bottom of who knew what and when, including whether Amber Rudd breached the ministerial code.
“The Home
Secretary has clearly lost control of her department and lost the trust of the public and must resign or be removed.”
The letter, which attacked the Government’s immigration policy as “pernicious” and was copied to the Cabinet Secretary, also laid out a number of questions that Ms Abbott believes must be answered.
Mr Lewis, now Tory Chairman, was swept up in the row after it emerged he knew about a Jamaican gran who had been wrongly taken to a detention centre – while insisting everyone in such centres was here illegally.
Ms Abbott added: “He was not only aware of what was going on in his time at the Home Office and appeared to lie about it but boasted about May’s cruel hostile environment policy, which led to the Windrush scandal.
“Tories knew policies were ruining lives but pressed ahead anyway.”
Let’s hope so.
It is not lightly this newspaper calls for the resignation of a government minister.
But the shambles unfolding at the Home Office is shameful.
The appalling treatment of the Windrush generation should have been enough for her to quit.
Insiders say Ms Rudd is being kept in place as a kind of “human shield” for Theresa May.
They fear if Ms Rudd goes, the spotlight will fall on the PM. That is not a good enough to keep the Home Secretary in her post.
This week Ms Rudd has been forced to make five public apologies.
On Monday she was sorry to the Windrush generation.
On Wednesday she was sorry for failing to grasp the scale of the problem.
On Thursday morning she was sorry for targets and deportations.
On Thursday afternoon she was sorry for a Brexit mix-up.
On Friday night she was sorry for not knowing the Home Office had targets.
But five apologies are not enough for the people who have suffered.
It’s not enough for those who have been refused cancer treatment, threatened with deportation, lost their homes, benefits, left penniless.
Sorry is not enough for the people who built their lives here and now fear for their future.
Now we’re sorry, Ms Rudd. It’s time to go.