David Lammy lays into Theresa May over her role in Windrush scandal
DAVID Lammy has accused the Prime Minister of shedding “crocodile tears” with her Windrush generation apology.
Theresa May said sorry for anxiety caused to the children of Commonwealth citizens wrongly faced with deportation and vowed to offer compensation.
But the Labour MP, who has led the attacks on the Home Office, says Ministers ignored warnings which highlighted those who had “irregular” immigration status.
Although not mentioning the Windrush group by name a 2014 report by charity Legal Action Group said “this group is being badly hit by legislation aimed at cracking down on illegal migrants”.
The Home Office also said in 2014 support would be offered to those with “uncertain immigration status” but it was down to the individual to “regularise” their position.
Mr Lammy said: “It is extraordinary that the Home Office ignored yet more warnings about the impact that their pernicious policies would have.
“The apologies made by the Prime Minister are merely crocodile tears given that her department was fully aware of the human cost that these policies would have.
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“It is time for a proper and independent review of our immigration policy and the hostile environment”.
Meanwhile, Jeremy Corbyn will today say the human consequences of the “deliberately unreachable bar” created for the Windrush generation “has ripped lives apart”.
It has also emerged that the National Archives holds the arrival records of people who arrived in the UK and could include those who came to Britain from the Caribbean by ship.
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