Rudd urged to resign as she admits Home Office has used internal deportation targets - Guardian

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Rudd urged to resign as she admits Home Office has used internal deportation targets - Politics live
Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen, including the Commons debate on staying in the customs union after Brexit

LIVE Updated 52s ago
 Amber Rudd giving evidence to the home affairs committee yesterday.
 Amber Rudd giving evidence to the home affairs committee yesterday. Photograph: BBC Parliament
Andrew Sparrow

 @AndrewSparrow
Thu 26 Apr 2018 19.51 AEST First published on Thu 26 Apr 2018 18.10 AEST
16m ago Rudd admits Home Office has used internal targets for deportations
20m ago Amber Rudd responds to Commons urgent questions on Home Office removal targets
40m ago Recorded knife crime in England and Wales up 22%, says ONS
48m ago David Lammy claims Rudd lied to parliament
1h ago Starmer accuses McCluskey of playing down Labour's antisemitism problem
2h ago Labour says Amber Rudd must face MPs to explain why she denied deportation targets exist
2h ago Amber Rudd summoned to Commons to explain why she denied deportation targets exist
52s ago
19:51
Labour’s John Woodcock says people will accept Rudd did not deliberately mislead the home affairs committee, not least because what she said was so easily disproved. But it it is worrying that she and her lead official did not know what was going on.

Rudd says she is not authorising targets. She wants a compassionate approach to immigration, she says.

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2m ago
19:49
Labour’s Diana Johnson asks Rudd if she was asleep when she did not know there were targets.

Rudd says immigration is an important part of her job, although not the only one. She says the changes she is making will flag up problems more quickly.

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2m ago
19:49
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3m ago
19:48
Labour’s Stephen Doughty says this goes well beyond the Windrush generation. How many people have been wrongfully deported or wrongfully detained? He has met people in both categories.

Rudd says she is looking into this, going back to 2002. She says she will get back to the home affairs committee.

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5m ago
19:46
Yvette Cooper, the Labour chair of the Commons home affairs committee, said it was “deeply disappointing that the home secretary did not know the facts” when she spoke to the committee yesterday. She said that in April 2016, after talks with Caribbean diplomats, Foreign Office ministers were made aware of concerns about Windrush migrants being deported. Cooper asked what action was taken.

Rudd said Cooper raised this in the committee hearing yesterday. She said she would look into it.

The Labour MP David Lammy said he had asked Rudd various questions about Windrush migrants, including how many were deported, and she could not reply. He asked Rudd to consider if he was really the right person “to lead this office of state”.

Rudd said she has been investigating if any Windrush migrants were wrongly deported, and so far there is no evidence of that happening.

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9m ago
19:42
The SNP’s Alison Thewliss also said that Rudd should resign.

But Rudd is getting the support of Conservative MPs. Sir Nicholas Soames said all Tory MPs were supporting Rudd, and Philip Davies, another Conservative backbencher, said people wanted tougher action against illegal immigrants.

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14m ago
19:37
In her response to Rudd, Abbott says Rudd should resign

Rudd responds by saying that illegal immigration is not the same as legal immigration. She says she was not aware of the internal targets.

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16m ago
19:36
Rudd admits Home Office has used internal targets for deportations
Diane Abbott asks for a statement about removal targets (that’s the question).

Amber Rudd says she gave evidence to the committee yesterday.

Windrush migrants are here legally and should not be subject to removal action, she says.

She says all MPs agree that the Windrush generation are here legally, but that the government should tackle illegal immigration. She says she has seen the exploitation and abuse that comes with that.

Her department has been working

The immigration arm of the Home Office has been using local targets for internal perfomance management.

She says, if they have affected policy, that will change.

Rudd admits Home Office has used internal targets for deportations.
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20m ago
19:31
Amber Rudd responds to Commons urgent questions on Home Office removal targets
Amber Rudd, the home secretary, is about to face Labour’s urgent question on the Home Office’s deportation removal targets.

This is what Rudd said about it at the Commons home affairs committee yesterday.



Alan Travis
✔
@alantravis40
 Was this the moment Amber Rudd revealed she has no grip on #Windrush or her department?
"Targets for removals when were they set?" asks @yvettecooper
"Err we don't have targets for removals," says Amber Rudd.
"But you did," says Cooper.
"I don't know what you are talking about."

3:37 PM - Apr 26, 2018
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40m ago
19:12
Recorded knife crime in England and Wales up 22%, says ONS
Police-recorded offences involving knives or other sharp instruments increased
by 22% year-on-year in England and Wales in 2017, the Press Association reports. The PA report goes on:

Police recorded 39,598 offences involving a knife or sharp instrument in the latest year ending December 2017, a 22% increase compared with the previous year (32,468), and the highest number registered since comparable records started in 2010.

The Office for National Statistics said: “The past three years have seen a rise in the number of recorded offences involving a knife or sharp instrument, following a general downward trend in this series since the year ending March 2011.”

Offences involving firearms were also up, by 11% to 6,604 recorded crimes.

These offences tend to be disproportionately concentrated in London and other metropolitan areas, the ONS said, but it added that the majority of police force areas saw rises in these types of violent crime.

The full ONS bulletin with the crime figures for England and Wales for 2017 is here.

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48m ago
19:03
David Lammy claims Rudd lied to parliament
The Labour MP David Lammy, one of the leading campaigners for the rights of the Windrush migrants, has accused Amber Rudd of lying to parliament. He has posted these on Twitter.


David Lammy
✔
@DavidLammy
 It is now clear that a) targets meant innocent Windrush citizens were targeted as ‘easy targets’, b) the Home Secretary lied to Parliament @CommonsHomeAffs and c) has completely lost control of her department. If I was responsible for this disgrace I would have resigned last week https://twitter.com/bethrigby/status/989380922536538112 …

4:53 PM - Apr 26, 2018
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David Lammy
✔
@DavidLammy
 The Home Office has imprisoned innocent citizens in their own country and stripped them of their rights for years. Then the Home Secretary either lied to Parliament yesterday about the existence of removal targets, or has absolutely no idea what is going on in her Department. https://twitter.com/labourwhips/status/989413286956412928 …

6:24 PM - Apr 26, 2018
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David Lammy
✔
@DavidLammy
 As I said two days ago: I have been a government minister. If I had been responsible for the Windrush scandal I certainly would have resigned I would have been so embarrassed and ashamed. And now it turns out the Home Secretary lied to Parliament yesterday http://www.itv.com/goodmorningbritain/news/david-lammy-mp-those-responsible-for-windrush-should-fall-on-their-sword …

6:46 PM - Apr 26, 2018

David Lammy MP: Those responsible for Windrush should 'fall on their sword'
Labour MP David Lammy told today’s Good Morning Britain that those responsible for the Windrush scandal should fall on their sword. He said: “I’ve been a minister in the government, if I had been...

itv.com
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Unfortunately for those of us who enjoy a good row, Lammy will not be allowed to accuse Rudd in quite these terms when the UQ comes up later. Accusing a fellow MP in the chamber of lying is deemed unparliamentary and unacceptable (even if the culprit has lied), and if an MP tries to use that language, the speaker forces him or her to withdraw or face being removed from the chamber.

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1h ago
18:50
The government is keen to downplay the importance of the backbench debate on the customs union later. That may explain why it has decided to schedule two ministerial statements today. Taking into account the urgent question on Home Office deportation targets too, that means the debate will not start until after 1pm. It is likely to run for less than three hours.


Labour Whips
✔
@labourwhips
 Govt squeezing debate on Customs Union by any chance? Two Oral Ministerial Statements in addition to Business Statement: 
1)   Artificial Intelligence sector deal – Margot James
2)   Stamp duty land tax – Mel Stride

5:55 PM - Apr 26, 2018
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1h ago
18:42
Starmer accuses McCluskey of playing down Labour's antisemitism problem
Yesterday the New Statesman published an article by Len McCluskey, the pro-Corbyn Unite general secretary and the most powerful union leader in the Labour movement, criticising Labour MPs who have complained about antisemitism in the party, saying they should be “held to account”.

Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, said this morning he thought McCluskey’s arguments were wrong. He implied that McCluskey was denying that antisemitism was a problem in the party, telling Today:

I disagree with Len McCluskey. Jeremy Corbyn has made it clear, and it is obvious, that we have got a problem with antisemitism. We have got to deal with it robustly and effectively.

Part of that is the disciplinary procedure, which needs to be much quicker and much more effective, but there is also a cultural question.

Part of that cultural question is to stop those denying that there is even a problem. That is part of the problem. So I am afraid I disagree with Len on this.

In his article McCluskey explicitly said that he accepted that a “small number” of Labour members were guilty of antisemitism and that they should be expelled. But he also said the issue was being deliberately exploited by Corbyn’s critics and most of his article focused on them.

 Sir Keir Starmer
 Sir Keir Starmer Photograph: Andy Hall for the Observer
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2h ago
18:18
The UQ will start at 10.30am. Full coverage here, obviously ...

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2h ago
18:16
Amber Rudd summoned to Commons to explain why she denied deportation targets exist
Amber Rudd, the home secretary, will be responding to the UQ, the Home Office says.

Updated at 6.18pm AEST
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2h ago
18:13
Speaker grants urgent question on Home Office deportation targets
The speaker, John Bercow, has granted an urgent question on the Home Office’s removal targets. It has been tabled by Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary.


Labour Whips
✔
@labourwhips
 🍿 UQ granted to @HackneyAbbott at 1030 to ask @AmberRuddHR if she will make a statement on the use of removal targets in the Home Office.

5:58 PM - Apr 26, 2018
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2h ago
18:10
Labour says Amber Rudd must face MPs to explain why she denied deportation targets exist
Amber Rudd, the home secretary, is in trouble. Yesterday, when she gave evidence to the Commons home affairs committee, she rejects claims that the Home Office set targets for the removal of illegal immigrants. She told the MPs:

We don’t have targets for removals ... If you ask me, ‘are there numbers of people we expect to be removed?’, that’s not how we operate.

But overnight it has emerged that the Home Office did have targets for the removal of illegal immigrants as recently as three years ago. My colleague Pippa Crerar has the story.

Amber Rudd faces questions over immigrant removal targets
 Read more
The reference to targets is in this report (pdf), published in December 2015 by the chief inspector of borders and immigration. Here is an excerpt.

 Excerpt from report on removals by independent chief inspector of borders and immigration
 Excerpt from report on removals by independent chief inspector of borders and immigration Photograph: Home Office
Overnight the government has revised its line on this from the one taken by Rudd in her hapless select committee outing yesterday. Matt Hancock, the culture secretary, set it out when he appeared on the Today programme to discuss a separate issue. He told the programme.

As far as I understand it, it has never been Home Office policy to take decisions arbitrarily to meet the target. There are rules around immigration. Immigration needs to be controlled but the rules also need to be fair.

Alert readers will spot that this formula, which Hancock repeated more than once, does not deny the existence of a target.

On Sky News Sir Keir Starmer, the shadow Brexit secretary, said the government was “dancing on the head of a pin”. He said Rudd should come to the Commons this morning to clear up what is going on. He told Sky:

The key question at the moment is, ‘Did you have a target for the number that were to removed?’ And that’s got to be answered. Amber Rudd appeared yesterday to say no. It looks as though she may have been contradicted in reports today. That’s got to be cleared up. The right thing to do would be to come to the House of Commons as the home secretary and make a statement setting out what the full position is and then face questions.

Obviously I will be following all the latest developments closely.

Here is the agenda for the day.

9.30am: Michael Gove, the environment secretary, takes questions in the Commons.

9.30am: Crime figures for England and Wales are published.

10am: The pro-European MPs Chuka Umunna and Anna Soubry hold a briefing ahead of the customs union debate.

10.30am: Mike Schroepfer, Facebook’s chief technical officer, gives evidence to the Commons culture committee.

After 11.30am: MPs debate a backbench motion saying the UK should stay in the customs union after Brexit. If there is a division, it will take place mid-afternoon.

As usual, I will be covering breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I plan to post a summary at lunchtime and another at the end of the day.

You can read all today’s Guardian politics stories here.

Here is the Politico Europe round-up of this morning’s political news from Jack Blanchard. And here is the PoliticsHome list of today’ top 10 must reads.

If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

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