MPs call for Amber Rudd to resign over 'rotten' Windrush scandal

MPs are calling for the resignation of Home Secretary Amber Rudd over the Windrush scandal.

Shadow foreign secretary Emily Thornberry has blasted the failures and said the entire controversy pointed at ‘something rotten at the heart of Government’.

Speaking on BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show, Ms Thornberry, also criticised Prime Minister Theresa May and her time at the Home Office.

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has added his voice to those calling for Amber Rudd to resign.

Mr McDonnell, speaking to ITV’s Peston on Sunday, said Ms Rudd needed to accept ‘her responsibilities’ and step down.

He said: ‘The Home Secretary, who’s the Home Secretary now, should accept her responsibilities and just as Theresa May way back when we were in power, when Labour was in government, was calling for ministers to take their responsibilities and resign, I believe Amber Rudd should go.’

Meanwhile, Justice Secretary David Gauke said the Home Secretary should not resign.

He told the BBC: ‘No, absolutely, because when it comes down to it, the central policy is right.

‘Clearly, there have been very significant failures in terms of how this has been implemented.

‘I think it is right that both the Home Secretary and Prime Minister have apologised for this.’

Asked if he felt ashamed about what had happened, Mr Gauke said: ‘Yes. It is wrong what has happened. It should not have happened.’

Tory former minister Baroness Warsi said that the story of Windrush migrants being prevented from healthcare was a “tragedy”.

She said: ‘It could have been my family, my grandfather arrived here in the fifties and my parents arrived here in the sixties, and I know growing up the paranoia that they had about paperwork and passports.

‘I think that came from a deep-rooted concern amongst other things from the rhetoric we were hearing from the likes of Enoch Powell that there may come a day when they would be told to leave.

‘I think 50 years on it’s tragic that very scenario that so many migrants and descendants of migrants lived with fear of came true during the Windrush tragedy.’