The government must come clean on the depth of the Windrush crisis

It is especially appropriate that it is the daughter of Jamaican immigrants who should be leading the struggle for justice for the victims of the Windrush scandals.

Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott is asking all the right questions about the government’s record, and ministers’ failure to answer her questions is not only discourteous but adds to the sense that the authorities have something they wish to hide. It would seem they do.

It is also fitting, and a further cause for optimism about social mobility, that the secretary of state replying to Ms Abbott is Sajid Javid, the son of Pakistani migrants. For, as The Independent exclusively revealed this week, British citizens of Pakistani, Indian and Ghanaian heritage have also found themselves caught up in the traumatising experience of having the right to live in their own country questioned, to the point of forcible deportation.

There is, as some have said, a marked contrast between the public assertions about the contribution that people from all over the Commonwealth have made to British national life and the grim reality of the policies and attitudes of the Home Office. The warm words and songs of praise that will echo around Westminster Abbey during the special service of thanksgiving do not rest easily with the “hostile environment” created by successive British governments.

No wonder, then, that Gus John, an equalities campaigner, tuned down an invitation to a Downing Street reception marking the 70th anniversary of the docking of the Empire Windrush. He has said he wishes to stand “with those who suffered detention, deportation and mental ill health”.

“It would be a shameful betrayal to them all to accept your invitation and join you in Downing Street to mark the arrival of the Windrush 70 years ago and the contribution to British society of those whom it brought and their descendants.”

Mr John speaks for many. It is that burning sense of injustice and indignity that means the Windrush issue will not simply fade away. The country as a whole has a right to know the full facts surrounding this affair and the role of individual ministers in sanctioning the policy or tolerating its most inhumane consequences.

In particular, Mr Javid should tell us how many people of the Windrush generation have opted for “voluntary” deportation, rather than turning up in the statistics for compulsory deportations. How many people have been detained in immigration centres, for how long and under what conditions? What are the rules for compensation and how much has been paid? And, as The Independent has raised, how many people outside the Caribbean territories have been affected by the regime personally overseen by Theresa May?

In his early weeks in his new post, Mr Javid has shown every sign of being responsive to the public mood and appears to be someone who prefers action to words – in embarrassing contrast to Ms May. However, he now needs to place the fact of the affair in the public domain, as sooner or later political pressure will force him to. With a certain amount of goodwill still on his side, he should be aware of the danger of being suspected of plotting a cover-up to protect his predecessors and his current political boss.

The Windrush scandal, in other words, will not be brought to closure by yet more official apologies. It requires disclosure; it requires a change in policy and culture; and, most importantly, it requires justice. Someone, somewhere must take responsibility for what went wrong. At the moment, the trail is leading to No 10.