Amber Rudd resigns as home secretary in wake of Windrush immigration scandal
Theresa May late last night accepted Amber Rudd’s sudden resignation from the government after the former home secretary faced repeated calls to step down over her handling of the Windrush immigration scandal.
In her letter of resignation, Rudd said she was stepping down because she had “inadvertently misled the Home Affairs Select Committee over targets for removal of illegal immigrants during their questions on Windrush”.
She added that since appearing in front of the committee, she had reviewed the advice she had been given on the issue and “become aware of information provided to my office that makes mention of the targets”. “I should have been aware of this, and I take full responsibility for the fact I was not,” she said.
In her reply, May thanked Rudd for her service. “Under your tenure, the Home Office has been working to enforce a firm but fair immigration policy,” she said.
May is expected to move quickly to appoint a new home secretary, with an announcement expected as soon as this morning.
Over the past two weeks, Rudd has been front and centre of a row concerning the culture of the Home Office. The ministry has been reeling from the fallout of the controversial “hostile environment” policy for illegal immigrants, the consequences of which led to the Windrush scandal.
For two weeks, ministers have been struggling to explain why some descendants of the so-called Windrush generation, invited to Britain to plug labour shortfalls between 1948 and 1971, had been labelled as illegal immigrants.
The government has apologised for the fiasco, promised citizenship and compensation to those affected.
Rudd found herself in further hot water yesterday after a letter emerged in which she wrote to May outlining her plans for “ambitious but deliverable” targets for enforced removals, after originally denying that she had set, signed or approved any such targets.
Read more: Amber Rudd’s letter to PM reveals “ambitious but deliverable” targets
The letter, dated January last year, read: “I will be reallocating £10m (including from low-level crime and intelligence) with the aim of increasing the number of enforced removals by more than 10 per cent over the next few years: something I believe is ambitious but deliverable.”
Backbench Tory MP Anna Soubry late last night said Rudd was a woman of “great courage and immense ability”, adding: “Amber will be missed in many ways. We’ll give her a huge welcome on to our back benches.”
Earlier yesterday the chairman of the Conservative party, Brandon Lewis, tried to come to Rudd’s defence by saying she had not misled parliament last week, after she faced calls to resign after a leaked memo showed she had been sent details of the targets.
Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson, said Rudd was “carrying the can for the person originally responsible for this scandal – Theresa May”.
I see Amber Rudd is carrying the can for the person originally responsible for this scandal – Theresa May.— Tom Watson (@tom_watson) April 29, 2018
Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, said Rudd’s resignation was inevitable and repeated calls for May to issue a statement to parliament.
This was inevitable, the only surprise is that it took so long.The architect of this crisis, Theresa May, must now step forward to give a full and honest account of how this inexcusable situation happened on her watchhttps://t.co/D98oSVJoiN— Diane Abbott (@HackneyAbbott) April 29, 2018
The Labour whips office called on May to “make a statement to the Commons to explain how she let this happen”.
Rudd should apologise to the House but it would only be right that May makes a statement to the Commons to explain how she let this happen – with the majority of the policy decisions made when she was Home Sec and now as PM – and what she’s going to do to put it right #WheresMay https://t.co/XUL9AGvHxx— Labour Whips (@labourwhips) April 29, 2018