Yahoo News Theresa May accused of 'racism' over Windrush
A Labour frontbencher has accused Theresa May of racism and running an "institutionally racist" government.
Dawn Butler, the shadow equalities secretary, said the Prime Minister “has presided over racist legislation that has discriminated against a whole generation of people from the Commonwealth.
Policies that she has implemented have disproportionately affected people from the Commonwealth and people of colour.”
Ms May needs to reconsider her position, Ms Butler said in an interview on Sky’s Sunday with Niall Paterson, adding: “She is not going to get let off the hook on this”.
The criticism came amid mounting pressure on the Government over the Windrush scandal.
In 2012, the Home Office introduced a so-called “hostile environment” policy, in an attempt to crack down on illegal immigration. This was backed up with successive Immigration Acts.
A lack of paperwork – particularly for those who arrived as children on their parents’ passports – means many people who have lived and worked legally in the UK for decades are struggling to prove their status to immigration authorities.
Asked whether Mrs May could personally be accused of racism, Ms Butler said: “Yes, she is the leader, she is presiding over legislation that is discriminating against a whole group of people that came from the Commonwealth.”
The people affected “suffered racism when they came over - and now they are having to relive that trauma all over again because of Theresa May,” Ms Butler said, adding: “An apology is not good enough.”
A Downing Street spokesman said Ms May highlighted the need to tackle racist injustice when she became Prime Minister and in 2016 launched an audit of public services to reveal racial disparities, to help tackle the problem.
Ms May was not the only one who was criticised over Windrush yesterday, as Emily Thornberry called for Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, to resign.
“If you are a politician in charge of a department and a department does its job as badly as the Home Office has clearly been doing then you should resign,” the shadow foreign secretary said.
“People have died, people have lost their jobs, they have lost their futures It could not be worse, and yet the Home Secretary thinks ‘I can apologise and it'll be all right’ - well it won't be.”
“I really think she should quit,” Ms Thornberry said.
Meanwhile, David Gauke, the Justice Secretary, admitted he was "ashamed" over the Windrush scandal. “It should not have happened. And it’s right that we apologise.
“These are people who are British citizens, they’ve been here for the overwhelming majority of their lives. They came here legally, have been here legally. It’s wrong what has happened and we do need to take steps to address it.”
