More calls for Rudd to quit over Windrush scandal

‘Wait and see’ is not a response

AMBER RUDD has faced repeated calls to resign amid claims that her department is “out of control” for using removal targets for illegal immigrants.

Ms Rudd denied on Wednesday that targets were used as she was quizzed by a Commons committee probing the Windrush scandal. But her comments appeared at odds with a 2015 inspection report which said the practice did exist.

An inspection of removals by the borders and immigration watchdog said targets were set in 2014/15 and 2015/16, which were split between 19 Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (Ice) teams across the UK.

In the Commons yesterday, the Home Secretary said she never agreed to use removal targets for migrants, adding that those used by her department “were not published targets against which performance was assessed”.

She also said Home Office staff should not follow the approach of going after “low-hanging fruit”, amid concerns that people were detained if they were viewed as easy targets.

Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott led the latest resignation calls, telling the Commons: “When Lord Carrington resigned over the Falklands, he said it was a matter of honour. Isn’t it time that the Home Secretary considered her honour and resigned?”

Tory former Minister Sir Nicholas Soames said Ms Rudd has the “total support” of her party in “trying to resolve a very difficult legacy issue”, while Philip Davies, MP for Shipley, claimed opposition parties are “out of touch” with working-class communities over immigration.

When pressed by Labour’s Paula Sherriff (Dewsbury) if she should resign, Ms Rudd replied: “I do take seriously my responsibility but I do think I am the person who can put it right.”

AMBER RUDD’S now tenuous position as Home Secretary would be slightly more secure if she’d made a more authoritative response to the Windrush scandal which shows no sign of abating after a fortnight of damaging disclosures.

However, the fact that Ms Rudd’s latest statement to Parliament posed even more questions about her management, and allayed very few fears of those legal migrants who are being threatened with deportation, inspires little confidence.

And the longer that Ms Rudd struggles to regain control of the agenda, the greater the belief that she’s sparing her predecessor – one Theresa May – from further embarrassment.

Though Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott’s renewed call for Ms Rudd to resign was a cynical cheap shot from a Labour party that did not get to grips with all aspects of immigration policy when last in office, it falls to the Home Secretary to deal with the present shambles.

Why were local officials implementing removal targets? Who ordered this? Why did Ms Rudd not know about their existence? ‘Wait and see’ is not an adequate response.

It does not end here. What action did the Home Office take when Commonwealth leaders warned the Foreign Office in 2016 of their concerns? Ms Rudd’s ‘wait and see’ response to West Yorkshire MP Yvette Cooper, head of the Home Affairs Select Committee, should not suffice.

And, most pertinently of all, when does Ms Rudd intend to clarify the residency status of all Windrush generation migrants caught up in the controversy? They, too, deserve better than ‘wait and see’.