Rudd ‘should quit over cruel policy’

Labour has stepped up calls for Home Secretary Amber Rudd to resign as she prepared to face a new grilling from MPs over her handling of the “Windrush generation” fisasco.

Jeremy Corbyn accused Ms Rudd of taking a “cruel and misdirected” policy which she had inherited from Theresa May when she was home secretary and making it worse.

During noisy Commons exchanges at prime minister’s questions, Mrs May insisted the so-called “hostile environment” policy towards illegal immigrants had not been aimed at people who were legally entitled to be in the country.

The row came amid anger at the way members of the so-called Windrush generation who arrived from the Commonwealth in the decades following the Second World War and who have now been threatened with deportation.

The exchanges set the scene for what is likely to be a highly-charged appearance by Ms Rudd before the Commons home affairs committee. On Monday she attempted to draw a line under the crisis with an emergency package of measures. A campaigner who has fought to criminalise “upskirting” has said recent meetings with the government are the clearest indication yet that a law change is imminent.

Gina Martin, 26, said she is “100%” more positive the issue is being taken seriously by politicians, months after launching a solo campaign for the cruel craze to become illegal.

Ms Martin organised an upskirting petition, signed by around 100,000 people, after two men took an image up her skirt at a concert in Hyde Park last summer.

She said she was frustrated because police said they were unable to take action against the men.

Although upskirting is a criminal offence in Scotland, victims in England and Wales are only able to pursue prosecution through voyeurism or public order laws, which campaigners say is not sufficient to obtain justice.

Jeremy Corbyn accused Amber Rudd in the Commons