Rudd on the brink after deportation memo leak

Home Secretary battles to save her career with late-night tweets over migrant targets

A DEFIANT Amber Rudd was clinging on as Home Secretary last night after she denied seeing a leaked memo, sent to her last year, confirming the department’s use of deportation targets.

In a series of tweets posted late last night after hours of speculation that she might be about to resign, the embattled Cabinet minister vowed to make a statement in the House of Commons on Monday about the Windrush scandal and targets for removing illegal migrants. She also apologised for not being aware of the targets.

It came after she told a committee of MPS this week that her department did not set targets for voluntary deportations of people who were living in the UK without permission, before admitting just a day later that such targets did exist, without her knowledge. Ms Rudd later added that no new targets would be approved.

Last night, she had to clarify her position once again after a leaked memo, sent to her by ona senior official in her department, confirmed that the targets were in use during her time in office.

In four tweets last night, Ms Rudd said: “I will be making a statement in the House of Commons on Monday in response to legitimate questions that have arisen on targets and illegal migration.

“I wasn’t aware of specific removal targets. I accept I should have been and I’m sorry that I wasn’t.

“I didn’t see the leaked document, although it was copied to my office, as many documents are.

“As Home Secretary, I will work to ensure that our immigration policy is fair and humane.”

The leaked document, which was prepared by the director general of the Home Office’s Immigration Enforcement Agency, was sent in June last year to the Home Secretary, as well as Brandon Lewis, her immigration minister at the time, and a number of senior civil servants and special advisers.

The note also reported back on Ms Rudd’s apparent request to increase deportations by 10 per cent. Given the seniority of the memo’s author, the Home Secretary would have been expected to be aware of its content.

Last night there was confusion in Whitehall amid claims that Ms Rudd was on the brink of resignation. She was also said to be cancelling speaking engagements as she battled to save her career. One minister said that “if it carries on” Ms Rudd may have to resign, adding: “A few more dominoes, then it becomes very difficult.”

The memo, revealed by The Guard- ian, piles further pressure on Ms Rudd over the Windrush scandal, which came to light after a number of citizens who won the right to live and work in the UK decades ago were threatened with deportation under tougher immigration measures.

The memo said the Home Office had set “a target of achieving 12,800 enforced returns in 2017-18” and added: “We have exceeded our target of assisted returns.”

It also noted that the Immigration Enforcement Agency had made progress “towards the 10 per cent increased performance on enforced returns, which we promised the Home Secretary earlier this year”.

The publication of the memo marks

the latest setback in a week of difficult revelations for Ms Rudd, after she told the home affairs select committee on Wednesday that her department did not set targets for removing people from the UK.

Under pressure from Yvette Cooper, the Labour MP, the Home Secretary said: “We don’t have targets for removals… if you’re asking me are there numbers of people we expect to be removed, that’s not how we operate.”

In the same hearing, Ms Rudd later appeared to backtrack, admitting she was not fully aware of the situation regarding targets and saying she would look into the issue and provide more evidence at a later stage.

A senior official in her department said there were no “public targets” but did not disclose the use of measures used by staff to ensure removals were increasing.

It came after Lucy Moreton, the general secretary of the ISU, the immigration workers’ trade union, told MPS the Home Office had been setting regional targets to encourage voluntary deportations and that the number was set at just over 8,000 last year.

Just a day later, on Thursday, the use of targets was confirmed by a previously published report.

Dating from 2015, the report stated: “For 2014-15 (10 full months) the Home Office set a target of 7,200 voluntary departures, an average of 120 per week, with the weekly target rising to 160 by the end of March 2015.

“For 2015-16, the annual target was raised to 12,000.”

All migrants from the Windrush generation have been promised that they will be given help to secure their British citizenship and will not be charged to do so, as well as receiving compensation.