Sajid Javid pleads with voters not to abandon Tories over Windrush scandal
2 min read
Sajid Javid has launched an impassioned plea for voters not to abandon the Conservatives at the upcoming local elections in the wake of the Windrush scandal.
The Communities Secretary said it could have been his mum or dad stripped of their rights and threatened with deportation - since they came to the UK from Pakistan in the 1960s - or even himself.
Windrush citizens who arrived between the 1940s and 1970s have been thrown into uncertainty after getting wrongly caught up in the Tory crackdown on illegal immigration.
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, Mr Javid said the Government would “put things right” and urged ethnic minority voters to look at the “bigger picture” at the local elections.
Voters head to the polls on Thursday, with Labour expected to hammer the Tories in many urban areas - especially in London.
But Mr Javid begged: “Please look at the response to Windrush, and the apology, in terms of trying to put things right.
“And, secondly, the bigger picture about how this Government has been committed to trying to deal with the injustices in society, some of which matter more to people from ethnic minorities.”
The Cabinet minister revealed his “very personal” response to the crisis as he pictured his own family being forced to fight the immigration system.
“I thought that could be my mum … my dad … my uncle … it could be me,” he said.
Meanwhile, some 200 MPs have written to Theresa May demanding she stamps into law the promises made to the Windrush generation over documented citizenship, rights and compensation.
And in a separate letter, Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott demanded a full inquiry into whether her counterpart knowingly misled MPs over illegal immigration targets.
Amber Rudd has insisted she was not aware of the targets when she told MPs they did not exist, and the Government has since announced they will be scrapped.
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