Amber Rudd under fire after sparking Tory Brexit row and making embarrassing Windrush U-turn on same day

Under-fire cabinet minister Amber Rudd has sparked a fresh Tory war over Brexit after suggesting the UK might still stay in a customs union after leaving the EU.

The home secretary’s comments – directly contradicting the prime minister’s official policy – came moments after MPs called for her resignation amid the growing Windrush scandal.

She had been forced into an embarrassing U-turn, admitting in the Commons that her immigration officials used targets for the number of people they should deport – despite denying it 24 hours earlier.

As Ms Rudd struggled to contain multiple political fires, Downing Street was forced to say Theresa May still had “full confidence” in her home secretary.

The minister has been seen as one of the strongest contenders to replace the party leader, but her chances of making it to the top job spiralled as events unfolded on Thursday.

It was at a parliamentary press gallery lunch with journalists that she was asked whether she thought it was more or less likely that the UK would end up in a customs union with Europe.

Despite Ms May having frequently said that the UK will not be a part of any customs union, Ms Rudd said the cabinet had not yet decided what its approach would be.

With a touch of sarcasm that hinted at fraught cabinet talks, she said: “We still have a few discussions to be had, in a really positive, consensual, easy way, among some of my cabinet colleagues, in order to arrive at a final position.”

Despite her quickly backpedalling after Downing Street ordered an almost immediate retraction, the comment enraged Conservative Brexiteers who see staying out of any sort of customs union as fundamental to their vision of Britain’s future.

Home secretary Amber Rudd on an EU customs union

Backbencher Peter Bone immediately weighed in to attack one of his own party’s most senior ministers and question her suitability for her job.

He said on social media: “At the press gallery lunch today, could not understand why Amber Rudd did not support government policy to leave the customs union. We cannot have Home Sec not supporting this key plank of Brexit!”

Former cabinet minister John Redwood told The Independent: “I think she needs to be reminded what government policy is.

“It is that we are leaving the customs union. There is no doubt about that, the prime minister has repeated it many times and that has been the clear message all the way down the ladder.”

As the row grew, the DUP – which props up Ms May’s Commons majority – warned it would bring down her government if Northern Ireland is forced to stay in the single market or customs union after Brexit.

Shadow Brexit secretary Keir Starmer said Ms Rudd had “let slip” that discussions on a customs union were still open.

Ms May’s public position that the country will remain outside of any customs union was formed to keep hardline Brexiteers happy, but some suspect she will try to keep the country in an arrangement practically the same as the existing one.

There is ongoing debate in cabinet over what the exact new arrangements should be, with Ms Rudd and the chancellor, Philip Hammond, favouring as close an arrangement to the existing customs union as possible, while the likes of Boris Johnson and Liam Fox are pushing for a greater degree of divergence.

Key members of the cabinet are set to meet next week in a bid to come to an agreement on the issue, but as Ms Rudd made her comment, pro-EU Tory backbenchers launched a new push to make the government back a customs union during a Commons debate jointly-called with pro-EU Labour MPs.

Former attorney general Dominic Grieve said: “Why is it that the deputy ambassador of Japan has us all in and says ‘you do realise that every Japanese company will be gone in 10 years’ time if they cannot have frictionless trade into the European Union’?

“We are behaving in the most extraordinary and blinded fashion as we blunder around ignoring the realities.”

Tory former minister Anna Soubry said it seemed “perverse” that Britain wanted to “put up a whole load of barriers” to stop access to the “best free trade area” in the world.

The MPs approved a non-binding motion calling on the government to include as an objective in Brexit negotiations, the option of establishing “an effective customs union” between the UK and EU.

It followed a vote in the House of Lords last week in which peers, including some Conservatives, voted for a similar amendment.

Ministers now face having to overturn it in the Commons and, even harder, must prevent stronger motions on keeping the UK in a customs being passed by rebel MPs like Ms Soubry.

Thursday’s Commons debate on Brexit had followed an earlier session in which Ms Rudd had again been at the centre of controversy around the Windrush scandal.

In front of MPs she was forced to admit that some immigration officers have been using targets for the number of people they should deport, after denying it less than 24 hours earlier.

The home secretary explained she was not aware of the targets, when she had told a committee of MPs on Wednesday “that’s not how we operate”.

Labour again called on Ms Rudd to resign as pressure intensified on her handling of the Home Office in the wake of the Windrush scandal which saw people in the UK being wrongly threatened with deportation.