Amber Rudd resigns amid Windrush scandal pressure
● Home Secretary’s position became untenable after claims she misled MPS
Amber Rudd last night resigned as Home Secretary amid claims she misled Parliament over targets for removing illegal migrants.
News that Prime Minister Theresa May had accepted her resignation broke after 10pm last night.
Ms Rudd telephoned Mrs May to tell her of the decision amid intensifying opposition demands for her to quit. A No 10 spokesman confirmed: “The Prime Minister has accepted the resignation of the Home Secretary.”
Ms Rudd was thought to be preparing to tough it out, insisting that she genuinely did not know about the tar- gets when she gave evidence to the Commons home affairs select committee last week.
However, having s een mounting evidence in the paperwork about the extent of the knowledge within the Home Office about the targets, she decided that she should take responsibility and go.
Ms Rudd had faced a barrage of calls to resign over the weekend, with critics blasting her for apparently being unaware of the Home Office’s use of targets for removing illegal immigrants.
The Home Secretary had been due to make a statement in the Commons
today on the issue. Her difficulties began on Wednesday when she told the Commons home affairs committee that the Home Office did not have targets for removals.
The following day, however, she returned to the Commons to admit that Immigration Enforcement managers did use “local targets” but she said they were “not published targets against which performance was assessed”.
The pressure then ratcheted up on Friday with the leak of a Home Office memo, which referred to a target of 2,800 enforced returns for 201718, and the progress that had been made towards a “10 per cent increased performance on enforced returns, which we promised the Home Secretary earlier this year”.
In a series of late- night tweets on Friday, Ms Rudd said she had not seen the memo – even though it was copied to her office – but admitted that she should have been aware of the targets.
Her position appeared to weak en after the former immigration minister Brandon Lewis disclosed he had weekly discussions with her about how they could get the numbers up when he was in the Home Office.
However, appearing on BBC One’s the Andrew Marr Show yesterday, Mr Lewis – who is now the Conservative Party chairman–insisted they had not talked about specific targets.
He was accused by Labour’s shadow home secretary Diane Abbott of“hiding behind semantics”, saying his disclo - sure made it clear she knew what was going on in the department.
“Beneath the spin, he let the truth slip and sealed her fate. Amber Rudd knew of the targets she pretended didn’t exist. It’s time for Rudd to go,” she said.
“The Wind rush scandal has exposed something rotten at the heart of Theresa May’s government and 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.”
Labour mayor of London Sadiq Khan had also joined the calls for Ms Rudd to go, saying it “beggars belief ” she did not know what was going on in her own department.
Mr Lewis said that while he had worked with her “on a weekly basis” about their efforts to increase the numbers of illegal immigrants being removed, they had never discussed“particular numbers” in the way that was suggested at the home affairs select committee.
“Yes, I did talk to the Home Secretary about that and the overall work that we were doing and the overall ambition to see an increase in numbers, but not on the detailed numbers and targets,” he said.
“What the Home Secretary was very aware of washer ambition to see an increase in the number of people who were being here illegally that we were removing, particularly those foreign national offenders.
“Those internal targets were not in the memo and not figures that she was aware of.”
Labour has said the targets contributed to the government’s “hostile environment” for illegal immigrants which led to members of the Windrush generation who were entitled to be in the UK being wrongly threatened with deportation.
More than 200 MPs have written to Ms May urging her to en shrine promises made to Wind rush generation migrants in law.
The letter, predominately backed by Labour MPS, also accuses Ms Rudd of making up immigration policy “on the hoof ” in an attempt to over- come the scandal. The letter has been signed by politicians from the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Green Party, and a Conservative MP.
Calling for the pledges to be written into law “without delay”, it says: “We are calling on you to do this by bringing a statutory instrument before Parliament to ensure that the measures are implemented as quickly as possible.”
Some of the so-called Windrush generation have been threatened with deportation, refused access to healthcare or lost their jobs as a result of “hostile environment” immigration policies. The government has offered free citizenship to people from Commonwealth countries who arrived in the UK before 1973, including individuals who have no current documentation.
Children of the Wind rush generation are also included, as well as Commonwealth mi grants who already have l eave to remain and want to advance their status. Ms Rudd had said some individuals may be eligible for compensation.
“The PM must launch a full inquiry to get to the bottom of who knew what, including whether Amber Rudd breached the Ministerial Code”
DIANE ABBOTT