May says sorry to UK ‘Windrush generation’
THERESA MAY has apologised to Caribbean leaders over the treatment of members of the socalled “Windrush generation” who have been threatened with deportation after decades living in the UK.
At talks in No 10, the Prime Minister said she was “genuinely sorry” for the anxiety that had been caused and wanted to dispel the idea that the Government was seeking to clamp down on citizens from the region.
Her attempt to draw a line under the affair threatened to come unstuck after Labour MP David Lammy disclosed he had been contacted by a woman who arrived from the West Indies in the 1950s and whose son was facing deportation today.
After posting details on Twitter, Mr Lammy said he was contacted by Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes who told him the removal of Mozi Haynes had been halted while his case was reviewed. The speed of the response underlined how sensitive the issue has become for the Government.
Separately, a child of the Windrush generation who is now based in Leeds has told of his heartbreak at missing his daughter’s wedding due to an official failure to recognise him as British.
Cabinet Office Minister David Lidington yesterday said officials were trawling through files to establish whether anyone had been wrongly deported.
THE PRIME Minister has spoken of her “regret” at Britain’s role in creating laws criminalising samesex relationships while a colonial power, saying “they were wrong then and they are wrong now”.
Theresa May, inset, told the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in London the UK would support member states which sought to reform “outdated” legislation affecting the relationships, or failed to protect women and girls.
Her words were welcomed by LGBT activists, but came hours after a Trinidadian bishop had accused the UK of “a sort of neo-colonialism” by urging states to legalise homosexuality. Mrs May told the CHOGM event at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in Westminster: “I am all too aware that these laws were often put in place by my own country. They were wrong then and they are wrong now. As the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister I deeply regret both the fact that such laws were introduced and the legacy of discrimination, violence and death that persists today. As a family of nations we must respect one another’s cultures and traditions but we must do so in a manner consistent with our common value of equality.”
Mrs May’s speech was greeted with applause by the audience of delegates and supported by others not attending.
Veteran rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said it was a “positive and welcome move” but said it should have been made to Commonwealth leaders rather than at an event attended by non-governmental organisation delegates.
Mr Tatchell added: “It acknowledges the wrongful imposition of anti-LGBT legislation by the UK, shows humility and helpfully highlights that current homophobic laws in the Commonwealth are mostly not indigenous national laws.
“They were exported by Britain and imposed on colonial peoples in the 19th century.”