Home Secretary Suella Braverman is under fire for rowing back on reforms designed to prevent another Windrush scandal, with Labour’s David Lammy saying victims were being “once again spat on”.
Ms Braverman has confirmed she will not be implementing all of the accepted recommendations from a review into how the scandal unfolded, including establishing a migrant’s commissioner.
The cabinet minister has also decided not to increase the powers of the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration (ICIBI) or to hold reconciliation events with the Windrush community – in a move branded “yet another betrayal”.
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The Windrush scandal erupted in 2018 when British citizens, mostly from the Caribbean, were wrongly detained, deported or threatened with deportation, despite having the right to live in the UK.
Many lost homes and jobs, and were denied access to healthcare and benefits.
A report into the scandal has since made 30 recommendations – all of which ex-home secretary Priti Patel accepted.
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This year is the 75th anniversary of HMT Empire Windrush arriving in the UK, the symbolic start of mass post-war immigration.
Patrick Vernon, who is organising this year’s 75th-anniversary celebrations of the Windrush generation’s arrival in Britain, said: “For the Home Secretary to be backsliding on government commitments to set right the injustices of the Windrush scandal – particularly in this anniversary year – is a slap in the face for those communities.”
The Windrush generation is named after the ship that brought hundreds of people from the Caribbean to the UK to help rebuild it after the Second World War, with the first one arriving in 1948.
The shadow foreign secretary, David Lammy, tweeted: “Black Britons detained and deported by their own government are once again being spat on by the Conservative government.
“Suella Braverman’s animosity towards our shared multicultural future is trauma-inducing.
“Our country’s brave Windrush victims denied justice yet again.”
Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy said black Britons are being “spat on” by the Conservative government
Wendy Williams, the solicitor who carried out the Windrush Lessons Learned Review, said she was “disappointed” Ms Braverman had reversed her predecessor’s promise, calling the scrapped recommendations “crucial external scrutiny measures”.
“I believe they will raise the confidence of the Windrush community, but also help the department succeed as it works to protect the wider public, of whom the Windrush generation is such an important part,” she said.
In a progress review published last year, Ms Williams warned that not having a commissioner would mean the department “risks undermining its stated commitment to transparency and effective policymaking, as well as the efforts to rebuild its reputation”.
But Ms Braverman said in a Commons statement on Thursday that “external bodies are not the only source of scrutiny” and that she would instead look to “shift culture and subject ourselves to scrutiny”.
On reconciliation events – proposed meetings between ministers, Home Office staff and those targeted during the scandal – Ms Braverman said she had been “persuaded that there are more effective ways of engaging with those impacted”.
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‘Yet another betrayal’
Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, accused Ms Braverman of failing to learn the lessons from the “appalling” scandal adding: “This is yet another betrayal of the Windrush generation in the 75th anniversary year.”
Ms Cooper pointed to failures to pay compensation “to those who were so badly wronged”, adding: “Four years after Wendy Williams’ review, just eight of its recommendations have been fully implemented and now some have been dropped altogether, including important safeguards to strengthen the borders inspectorate.
“The Home Office had an opportunity to put its apology to the Windrush victims into action, but it is tragic that the Home Secretary hasn’t learned the lessons of that appalling scandal.”
A Home Office spokeswoman said: “We are making progress towards the vast majority of recommendations from Wendy Williams’ report, and believe there are more meaningful ways of achieving the intent of a very small number of others.
“Through this work, we will make sure that similar injustices can never be repeated and are creating a Home Office worthy of every community it serves.”