Theresa May has ‘full confidence’ in Amber Rudd despite mounting pressure over deportation targets
5 min read
Downing Street has insisted that Theresa May has “full confidence” in Amber Rudd, as the embattled Home Secretary was said to be "hanging by a thread" following a leaked memo on her department’s deportation targets.
The Home Office document - seen by The Guardian and reportedly copied to Ms Rudd - sets out how officials planned “a target of achieving 12,800 enforced returns in 2017-18”. The Home Secretary is also named in the memo, which describes immigration enforcement as on a “path towards the 10% increased performance on enforced returns, which we promised the Home Secretary earlier this year”.
The leak casts doubt on Ms Rudd’s claim earlier this week that her department does not make use of targets for immigration removals. Both Labour and the SNP have called on Ms Rudd to quit over the latest revelations.
But, in a late night statement, Number 10 said the under-fire Home Secretary still retained the backing of the Prime Minister.
“The PM has full confidence in the Home Secretary, and the hugely important work that she is carrying out at the Home Office,” Downing Street said.
Ms Rudd also posted a string of tweets in which she denied seeing the memo, said she “wasn't aware of specific removal targets”, and vowed to stay in post to “ensure that our immigration policy is fair and humane”. The Home Secretary said she would be making a fresh statement to the House of Commons on Monday.
Ms Rudd is already facing a storm of criticism over her department’s treatment of members of the so-called Windrush generation, who came to the UK from the Caribbean decades ago but who have been swept up in a wider crackdown on illegal immigration under the government’s ‘hostile environment’ policy. Some citizens have been threatened with deportation while others have lost access to public services.
Last night, Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott renewed her call for Ms Rudd to resign, accusing her of clinging on to her cabinet post to protect Mrs May.
"Amber Rudd is hanging by a thread to shield the Prime Minister from her responsibilities as the initial architect of this cruel and callous approach to migration, which resulted in the Windrush scandal,” she said.
Ms Abbott added: “She failed to read crucial documents which meant she wasn't aware of the removal targets that have led to people's lives being ruined. Another apology is not enough, she should take responsibility for chaos in the Home Office and resign."
The SNP’s Joanna Cherry echoed that view, describing Rudd’s position as “untenable".
Late last night, a host of Conservative MPs rallied around Ms Rudd, in what some saw as a co-ordinated operation to shore her up.
"INCONCEIVABLE"
Key figures around the Home Office have already cast doubt on Ms Rudd’s apparent ignorance about the removal targets, with a senior Home Office source telling The Guardian: “We were gobsmacked by what she said, and that she stuck to her guns…It is inconceivable that Amber Rudd did not know about the targets.”
Another said Ms Rudd was responsible for “cracking the whip" on two other stringent immigration policies - Operation Perceptor and Operation Gopik. Operation Perceptor is the Home Office’s target to arrest and deport people on the same day, while Operation Gopik aims to target EU nationals with more than three criminal convictions.
Earlier this week Lucy Moreton - head of the ISU union which represents immigration officials - said she was “bemused” the Home Secretary would not know targets were in place.
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