Windrush scandal being used to undermine fight against illegal immigration, says Amber Rudd

The Windrush scandal is being used to undermine the fight against illegal immigration, Amber Rudd has said as she accused critics of "willfully misleading" the British public.

The Home Secretary hit back after a week of intense criticism of the Government’s handling of a crisis which has seen Windrush generation migrants with the right to stay in the UK threatened with deportation.

A leaked private memo published on Friday revealed that Ms Rudd had vowed last year to “ruthlessly” prioritise the detention and forcible removal of illegal migrants in a letter sent to Theresa May, the Prime Minister.

Ms Rudd also outlined an aim of increasing the number of enforced removals by more than 10 per cent "over the next few years".

But Ms Rudd’s Home Office issued a sharply worded statement warning against conflating the two separate issues of the plight of Windrush citizens and Government efforts to crackdown on people who are in Britain illegally.

A Home Office spokeswoman said: “Illegal immigration impacts the whole of society, putting pressure on taxpayer-funded public services, leaving vulnerable people at the mercy of exploitative employers or landlords, and at worst, fuelling the abhorrent crimes of modern slavery and human trafficking.

“People from the Windrush generation are of course here legally. The Home Secretary has recognised the huge contribution they have made to our society, and has apologised unreservedly to them.

“We are taking urgent action to help them to evidence their legal right to live in the UK, and have set up a dedicated taskforce to do so.

“It is wilfully misleading to conflate the situation experienced by people from the Windrush generation with measures in place to tackle illegal immigration and protect the UK taxpayer. It is clearly essential that we continue to take action against people who are here illegally.”

Keith Mitchell, the Prime Minister of Grenada, said the compensation offered to victims of the Windrush scandal had to be a "substantial sum".

He said that Mrs May "mentioning the word compensation today is highly significant", telling The Telegraph: "It is extremely important - it cannot be just 'I am sorry'. There are people who have lost a lot, people who have suffered a lot of pain'.

"They must be given an opportunity to correct this by some serious compensation if not to the persons who have gone, the families who have suffered too."

He added: "The only region which has not been given compensation for injustices of the past is the Caribbean region. There has been no compensation and I think that is an issue that we cannot allow to slip by."

Mr Mitchell said he had not discussed figures with Mrs May but said it had to be a "substantial sum".

Ms Rudd has faced calls to resign over how Windrush citizens have been treated after it emerged some people who came to the UK legally in the Fifties and Sixties and were granted the right to stay had been threatened with deportation after they were unable to prove their right to remain.

The Home Secretary reportedly laid out “ambitious” plans to increase removals of migrants residing in the UK illegally, to be partly financed by re-allocating money to the immigration programme, in a letter sent to Mrs May in January 2017.

Ms Rudd used the private memo, obtained by The Guardian, to promise to toughen up the policies devised by her predecessor.

Within months members of the Windrush generation began to receive letters threatening them with deportation unless they were able to provide proof of British citizenship.

Ms Rudd is reported to have said: “Illegal and would-be illegal migrants and the public more widely, need to know that our immigration system has ‘teeth’, and that if people do not comply on their own we will enforce their return, including through arresting and detaining them.

“That is why I will be refocusing immigration enforcement’s work to concentrate on enforced removals.”

The publication of the memo came as it emerged that the number of cases being looked into as a result of calls to the Home Office's dedicated Windrush helpline was approaching 300 with eight people having been given permanent status so far.

Meanwhile, Downing Street refused on Friday to rule out giving preferential treatment to EU migrants over their Commonwealth counterparts after Brexit.

The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “I think that will be a matter for our future immigration policy. We have talked about the value of the Commonwealth and those coming from the Commonwealth to the UK have made to our society and completely stand by that.

“In terms of details that would be a matter for the future immigration policy.”