WINDS OF CHANGE
Under-fire Amber Rudd vows to fast track passports for Windrush immigrants
Home Secretary admits ‘the state has let people down’ after scandal over threat to deport thousands of Caribbean migrants
THOUSANDS of Windrush-era immigrants were last night promised fast-track British citizenship by embattled Home Secretary Amber Rudd.
Vowing to “change the culture” in the Home Office, the Tory said anyone from the affected generation of Commonwealth immigrants could have a passport without charge, nor having to sit a ‘knowledge test’ on language and life in the UK.
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She also promised to compensate some of those who have lost benefits, access to healthcare and even their homes as a result of the chaos at the Home Office.
Speaking in the Commons, Ms Rudd said: “I do take responsibility, I want to be the person who puts it right.”
Critically she also hinted at wanting to break from the legacy of PM Theresa May’s reign as Home Secretary, by promising to put a new “culture” in place at the department.
She also signalled the net migration target could be reviewed in the coming months. Urged to drop the tens of thousands target by Labour, Ms Rudd declined to comment “at the moment”.
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Last week the Government issued a grovelling apology after it emerged Windrush immigrants were being threatened with deportation because of a 2014 bill to weed out illegal migrants.
The crackdown meant Commonwealth citizens who never took up the offer of a British passport before 1973 were having to prove how long they had lived here.
To jeers from Labour, Ms Rudd yesterday said “successive governments” had failed the Windrush generation – citing tougher rules introduced by the Tories in 1982 and the last Labour government.
Labour campaigner David Lammy – who has championed the cause of the Windrush immigrants – demanded similar security for others “born under the Empire” from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Ghana.
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He stormed: “It is unfair – they were born under empire, many have been here for generations.”
Diane Abbott, Shadow Home Secretary, said: “Many people think the events around the Windrush generation are one of the biggest scandals in the administration of home affairs in a very long time.
“The home secretary said the situation should never have been allowed to happen. She was the home secretary. She should never have allowed them to happen.”
Ms Rudd said the Home Office had settled nine residency cases since launching a new hotline a week ago.
Vowing to fix the chaos, she said: “This should never have happened. We need to show a human face to how we we work and exercise greater judgement where it is justified.”