Johnson 'repeats call for amnesty for some illegal immigrants' in wake of Windrush

Boris Johnson has repeated his call for an amnesty for some illegal immigrants in the wake of the Windrush scandal, according to reports.

The Foreign Secretary pressed the Prime Minister to introduce the measure for those from the Commonwealth and other nations during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Mr Johnson told the gathering of Theresa May's top team there needed to be a "broader" amnesty covering people who had lived in the UK for more than 10 years and had no criminal record, the paper said.

The row over the Windrush generation has provoked scrutiny of Mrs May's "hostile environment" immigration policy brought in during her time as home secretary.

The Foreign Secretary's intervention and call for a more liberal approach will be viewed as a challenge to the PM, who has faced heavy criticism over the scandal.

Long-term residents of the UK, who came to Britain in the decades after the Second World War, have been wrongly stripped of benefits and threatened with deportation.

According to the Spectator, Mrs May "acidly" observed that this is not the first time Mr Johnson has called for an amnesty, a remark the Foreign Secretary appeared "remarkably unbothered" by.

Mr Johnson first made the call when he was mayor of London in 2008 and then again in 2016.

The simmering tension between the pair comes as Amber Rudd, Mrs May's successor at the Home Office, prepares to face tough questioning from MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee over Windrush.

She attempted to get a grip on the row on Monday when she unveiled a package of emergency measures, which includes a fast-track offer of UK citizenship and a compensation scheme.

Labour's Yvette Coooper, chair of the Home Affairs Committee, said there were still "so many unanswered questions".

"We need to know what is going to be done on compensation for people that have lost jobs, homes, livelihoods or even been locked up as a result. And we need to know what is going to change," she said.

"Although the Home Secretary has said that the Windrush scandal should cause a culture change in the Home Office, we still don't have clear answers about how things went so badly wrong or how something similar could be prevented in the future.

"Nor do we have enough details about how wider policies are going to be addressed, and how they are going to make sure other legal residents aren't treated in the same way."