Windrush Day 2025

Kim Johnson Excerpts

Monday 16th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Helen Hayes]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend’s constituents, who, like so many of the Windrush generation, demonstrated their resilience by taking initiatives to circumnavigate the racism to which they were subject. We still live with that racism and discrimination today, and we can never be complacent about that. We must continue to address all the issues that still need to be dealt with.

[Kim Johnson (Liverpool Riverside) (Lab)]

In the 1960s and 1970s, lots of young black children were identified as educationally subnormal, and were sent to such schools even though they were not educationally subnormal. Does my hon. Friend believe that their descendants and the people affected by that really need to be given an apology to acknowledge what they experienced during that time?

[Helen Hayes]

I thank my hon. Friend for all the work she is doing on this issue. As I have said, I believe this is an unaddressed issue on which there is still work to do.

In that vein, it is devastating to read the words of John Carpenter, which I have shared before in this House, who travelled on the Windrush aged 22. Speaking in 1998, he said:

“They tell you it is the ‘mother country’, you’re all welcome, you all British. When you come here you realise you’re a foreigner and that’s all there is to it.”

Despite the hardships and injustices they endured, the Windrush passengers and those who followed them settled in the UK and put down roots, using the Pardner Hand community savings scheme to buy property to circumvent the racist landlords, and to establish businesses and churches. Sam King became a postal worker, was elected to Southwark council and became the first black mayor of the borough. It was a very brave achievement since he faced threats from the National Front, which was active in Southwark at that time. Sam was also instrumental in establishing the Notting Hill carnival and the West Indian Gazette. He later established the Windrush Foundation with Arthur Torrington, who still runs it.

In my constituency, the Windrush generation helped to forge the Brixton we know today. In doing so, they made a huge contribution to a community where everyone is welcome, where difference is not feared but celebrated, and where we are not strangers but friends and neighbours. To mark the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush, talented young people from Brixton designed a beautiful logo, which is based on the pattern of human DNA.

The Windrush generation and subsequent migrants who have come to this country from all over the Commonwealth sparked the emergence of modern multicultural Britain. They are part of us, and part of the UK’s 21st-century DNA. The Windrush generation made an extraordinary and enduring contribution, because the Windrush generation continued to endure—

--- Later in debate ---

[Kim Johnson (Liverpool Riverside) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes) for securing this important debate. She has long been a friend to the Windrush community and their descendants, and has long played a major role in celebrating and commemorating their contributions to this country.

I am proud to speak in this debate as the first black MP for Liverpool; I am proud of my African and Irish heritage. Many Members might not know that the SS Ormonde docked in Liverpool the year before the Empire Windrush made her final destination at Tilbury in June 1948. The Windrush generation came to Britain as citizens—invited by Enoch Powell, we should remember —to rebuild a broken nation after the war. In Liverpool, they settled mostly in the south of the city, building a vibrant community and contributing to our culture in many different ways, from music to food to football and to the unique Scouse spirit. They included Lord Woodbine, a Trinidadian who helped The Beatles to achieve fame, but who sadly was written out of history. They worked in the shipyards, the hospitals, the buses and the schools. Against the daily struggles and common racism, they built our city and claimed it as their home.

Today, we honour their courage and celebrate the legacy they built. In so doing, we reject again the disgraceful “island of strangers” narrative that has reared its ugly head recently, evoking the shadow of Enoch Powell as he whipped up hatred against the Windrush generation and other migrants he invited to this country. Today is a reminder that our diversity is the best of us. For the sacrifice these immigrants made to better our country, we all owe them a debt.

With that in mind, I want to use the opportunity of this debate to call for swifter action to fix the Windrush compensation scheme. The Windrush scandal was a national disgrace. It was a deliberate and inevitable outcome of the Tories’ hostile environment policy, and a nightmare for so many who had come to this country as children—citizens who had worked their whole lives in service to our country and had always paid their taxes. The injustices these people still face are deeply felt. They are denied access to employment, healthcare and other services, often becoming homeless, and are even detained and removed from the country they have called home for decades. The scandal has had a chilling effect on the entire community, and many now fear coming forward to access services in case they face repercussions.

To date, the scheme has been incredibly slow and bureaucratic. Data from this time last year shows that 8,800 claims were made for compensation, only 2,600 of which had received payments. The Government have recently made more funding available for grassroots organisations to support claims through the Windrush scheme, but we still need to go so much further and faster. We need to adapt the recommendations made by the Williams review, rebuild trust and relations with the black Caribbean community and consider the implications of our current immigration policies, which risk a continuation of the hostile environment. Today, we reaffirm our fight against hostile immigration policies and celebrate our diversity as strength.