Windrush scandal: Cross-party pressure grows for Amber Rudd to resign over 'appalling mess'

Amber Rudd is under mounting pressure to resign as home secretary in the wake of the “callous” Windrush scandal as the SNP described her position as “untenable” and Labour called for her to stand down.

Labour frontbencher Emily Thornberry said the Windrush debacle was evidence that there was “something rotten at the heart of government” as stories flooded in over the treatment of Commonwealth citizens who arrived in the UK between the late 1940s and early 1970s and have recently found their migration status under challenge.

Asked on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show whether Ms Rudd should resign, the shadow foreign secretary replied: “I think she should quit.”

She added: “People have died, people have lost their jobs, lost their futures. People working in the National Health Service all their lives suddenly lose their jobs.

“It could not be worse and yet the home secretary thinks, ‘I can apologise and it will be alright.’ Well, it won’t be.”

Minutes later, John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, said “I think she [Ms Rudd] should go” in an appearance on ITV’s Peston on Sunday.

Ian Blackford, the SNP leader in Westminster, is also demanding that the home secretary consider her position and for Theresa May to “show leadership” over the controversy.

Describing the situation as a “disgrace”, Mr Blackford said: “Amber Rudd has failed in her responsibilities – she has shown the Home Office at its most incompetent and callous – and has undoubtedly damaged the UK’s standing and reputation.”

“The Windrush situation has been nothing short of a disgrace. That people who have lived here lawfully for up to 50 years were being told their presence in the UK was illegal says so much about the approach of this Tory government.

“It is now time for the home secretary, who has presided over this appalling mess, to consider her position. Theresa May must show leadership over the scandal – it is unbelievable that we have not seen a sacking or resignation in the Home Office.”

But Ms Rudd was defended by her cabinet colleague David Gauke, who also admitted he felt ashamed over the Windrush revelations. “It is wrong what has happened,” he said. “It should not have happened.”

Asked whether Ms Rudd should resign, he replied: “No, absolutely, because when it comes down to it, the central policy is right.”

He continued: “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.”

The remarks come as Jeremy Corbyn is set to accuse the Prime Minister of being personally responsible for the problems faced by the Windrush generation by setting a deliberately unreachable bar with her “hostile environment” immigration policies.

The Labour leader is to tell the party’s Welsh conference that “lives have been ripped apart” by the crackdown.

Mr Corbyn is set to tell the Llandudno gathering on Sunday: “This week, something rotten at the heart of Government has come to the surface.

“The Windrush scandal has exposed how British citizens who came to our country to rebuild it after the war have faced deportation because they couldn’t clear the deliberately unreachable bar set by Theresa May’s ‘hostile environment’ for migrants.

“And it’s not as if they weren’t warned. At the time the Tories were pushing their hostile environment policy through Parliament some of us, sadly far too few, warned about the consequences for those born in the UK and those born abroad alike.”