Friends furious at ‘targeted killing’ of Rudd

CABINET ministers are demanding an inquiry into how Whitehall leaks resulted in the “targeted killing” of Amber Rudd’s Home Office leadership.

Friends of Ms Rudd are furious at the way civil servants were able to undermine her by apparently leaking documents about immigration policy and forcing her to quit as home secretary on Sunday evening.

The Home Office declined to comment on a Buzzfeed report late on Monday that it had already launched a series of inquiries.

A leak on Friday, days after Ms Rudd told MPS on the home affairs committee that deportation targets did not exist, said Ms Rudd was made aware of the targets last June. A senior Home Office official contacted Ms Rudd’s team to say “there were no targets” during the committee hearing, the London Evening Standard reported. The Home Office declined to comment when approached by The Daily Telegraph.

One Cabinet minister described Ms Rudd’s forced resignation as a “targeted killing” by the Civil Service, saying: “There should be a leak inquiry.”

Tim Loughton, a Tory member of the home affairs select committee, added: “This needs to be looked into.”

Meanwhile, Nigel Evans, the former deputy speaker and a senior member of the backbench 1922 committee, said: “There needs to be an inquiry. They need to work out where these leaks are coming from.”

Friends of Ms Rudd said: “Everything she has done in the past six to nine months that was important – there were pre-leaks to spoil it.”