Labour: Theresa May's government ‘decomposing’ after shock Amber Rudd resignation
6 min read
The Government is in "terminal disarray" after the dramatic resignation of Amber Rudd, Labour has claimed - as Theresa May said she was "very sorry" to see the Home Secretary leave her post.
Downing Street was plunged into a fresh crisis last night following the resignation of Ms Rudd, who quit after it emerged she had sent a letter to the Prime Minister promising to fulfil "ambitious but deliverable" targets for removing illegal immigrants.
The comment, revealed in a memo leaked to The Guardian, appeared to contradict the Home Secretary's multiple earlier claims that she had not been aware of any removal targets at the Home Office.
In her resignation letter - released late last night by Number 10 - the outgoing Home Secretary said she had taken the decision to quit “with great regret”, but acknowledged that she had “inadvertently misled” MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee over the Home Office’s deportation targets.
“Since appearing before the select committee, I have reviewed the advice I was given on this issue and become aware of information provided to my office which makes mention of targets,” she wrote.
“I should have been aware of this and I take full responsibility for the fact that I was not.”
The departing Home Secretary’s letter also acknowledged the public outcry over the government's treatment of the Windrush generation, citizens who came to the UK from the Caribbean decades ago and who have been swept up in a wider immigration crackdown. Some have lost access to healthcare and benefits, while others have been threatened with deportation.
Ms Rudd said the Windrush “scandal” had “rightly shone a light on an important issue for our country”, and she revealed that emergency laws were now being drawn up to protect those affected by the row.
“As so often, the instincts of the British people are right," she said. "They want people who have a right to live here to be treated fairly and humanely, which has sometimes not been the case. But they also want to the Government to remove those who don’t have the right to be here.
"I had hoped in coming months to devise a policy that would allow the Government to meet both these vital objectives - including bringing forward urgent legislation to ensure the rights for the Windrush generation are protected.
The Prime Minister said she was "very sorry" to see Ms Rudd leave the government, and defended the Home Office's "firm but fair" stance on immigration.
But she said: "I understand why, now that you have had the chance to review the advice that you have received on this issue, you have made the decision you have made and taken responsibility for inadvertently misleading the Home Affairs Select Committee."
Mrs May meanwhile paid tribute to the departing Home Secretary's "great integrity, compassion and selflessness", and left the door open to a possible return to government by saying: "I know that you have a great contribution still to make to national life, and look forward to seeing you do so."
A string of Conservative MPs also heaped praise on Ms Rudd, with Anna Soubry saying she was very sorry to see the Home Secretary quit.
"She is a woman of great courage & immense ability," Ms Soubry said. "Amber will be missed in many ways. We’ll give her a huge welcome on to our back benches. If there is any justice she will soon return to the highest of office. Proud to call her my friend."
'DECOMPOSING'
But critics of the Government were quick to seize on Ms Rudd's exit, with Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell saying the latest blow added to the sense of dysfunction in government.
"You can smell the undoubted odour of a government decomposing," he said. "
"Amber Rudd’s forced resignation, increasingly bitter divisions over its Brexit policies & Lycamobile, a major donor to the Tory party, being prosecuted for a tax scam, all point to a government in terminal disarray."
Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott told Radio 4's Westminster Hour that she believed Ms Rudd had "done the right thing", but said her own sympathies were "with that generation of people who feel they’ve been let down by the British government".
“First of all my job will not be done until we get justice for the Windrush generation but of course we all need to turn our attention to Theresa May because it was in her tenure as Home Secretary that many of the worst aspects of the so-called hostile climate were pushed through," she said.
"And in particular in 2014 she put legislation through that removed the protection from deportation that Commonwealth citizens had always had.”
Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable - who served as business secretary in the coalition government - said that while it was a "very difficult job being head of a big department" Ms Rudd had presided over "some very serious misjudgements".
He also warned the Prime Minister that the loss of the staunchly pro-Remain Ms Rudd from the Cabinet could spell fresh trouble in the House of Commons for the Government's Brexit plans.
“I think the fact that Amber Rudd, Justine Greening and Dominic Grieve, others - very serious, highly respected figures - are out there, ranging freely, I would have thought would be a source of considerable headache to Theresa May and her more Brexit-oriented colleagues," he told the BBC's Westminster Hour.
Ms Rudd's letter makes scant reference to Brexit. But the outgoing Home Secretary said it had been "an honour" to work on preparations for leaving the bloc "to ensure that we have the best possible EU deal for our economy, businesses, jobs and people across the UK".
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