Windrush Lessons Learned Review

David Lammy Excerpts

Thursday 19th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right in his reflective remarks about the citizens who came to our country legally, in effect to rebuild our nation and join our public services. For many decades, that generation experienced great hostility and overt racism in our country. As much as our country has moved forward, made progress and changed, as I said, there much that we need to do and we must all look at ourselves. He is also right to highlight people of other nationalities—citizens of Commonwealth countries in particular. The shadow Home Secretary also referred to Commonwealth citizens who were caught up in this. I know the report speaks very much about the Windrush generation—people who originated in Caribbean communities—but many other people from Commonwealth countries have been affected. As part of our work in the Home Office, we will of course endeavour to reach out through our engagement programmes to individuals from Commonwealth countries too.

[Mr David Lammy (Tottenham) (Lab)]

Wendy Williams’ Windrush lessons learned review is a brutal indictment of the Home Office, which shows that it is wholly unfit for the society it is supposed to serve. The review states that the Home Office displayed “institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness” on race issues that is

“consistent with some elements of the definition of institutional racism.”

The review accuses the Home Office of having a “defensive culture” that makes it deaf to those raising genuine concerns. Will the Home Secretary accept today, in this House, that, as was said previously, this was not a mistake or an accident, but a systemic pattern of appalling behaviour, rooted in a toxic internal culture and a failure of the Department to understand Britain’s colonial history?

Will the Home Secretary commit at the Dispatch Box to implement every single recommendation in this review? Will she review the £62,000 that has been paid out to those who should be compensated by far more? Will she ensure, at the Dispatch Box today, that she will end the hostile environment, which amplified things and has brought this about? The report asks for contrition and genuine understanding. We will hold her to account and to her word that that contrition is genuine, so that we right these shameful wrongs.