Windrush Lessons Learned Review

Yvette Cooper Excerpts

Thursday 19th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel]

My hon. Friend is right to say that I received the report yesterday and, such is its importance, I published it today. Last July, Wendy Williams began the representations in the Maxwellisation process; those officials who have been involved and engaged in this process did not have sight of the actual review or report, because obviously it has taken time for that to come together, but there has been ongoing work and dialogue with key officials, former Ministers and many other interviewees Wendy has worked with for the publication of this review. That has taken place over a long period of time.

[Yvette Cooper (Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford) (Lab)]

This report is deeply disturbing, but it also tells us many of the things we have been raising concerns about since the Windrush crisis emerged. The result of it is that British citizens have been deported, been denied NHS treatment, been cost their jobs and been made homeless by the actions of the British Government, who act in all of our names. So all of us should be deeply ashamed by what has happened to the Windrush generation and determined that this should never happen again; the conclusions on racism are particularly damning. The Home Secretary will know that consecutive Home Affairs Committee reports, and reports from previous Committees as well, have often raised many of the concerns embedded in this report: concerns about the hostile environment; about the casework culture— the culture of disbelief; about the net migration target; and about a series of problems within the Home Office, but they have not had an impact. Some of the most damning conclusions in Wendy Williams’ report are that this was foreseeable and avoidable and that, since the Windrush crisis broke, the action that has been taken has been dealing only with the symptoms and not the causes. Will she therefore urgently agree to accept all the recommendations about scrutiny and openness in the Home Office, so that she can prove to Parliament that she is, in fact, going to make the fundamental changes that are needed?

[Priti Patel]

The right hon. Lady is right in her identification of the issues that existed over a period of time—Wendy Williams was also very clear about them in her review. Over several decades, and under successive Governments, those policies were part of the culture and the environment of the Home Office. I am clear that I will review all the recommendations, and I will work with Wendy. There may be recommendations that I can proceed with sooner rather than later, and I am absolutely committed to doing that, because there are structural and cultural issues at the heart of this. They are so self-evident in this report that no one can sit back and digest them lightly, or close their eyes and ears to many of the challenges and to some of the deeply moving points that have been made. I will come back to the House on this, but I will work absolutely vigorously with Wendy to look at every single recommendation and consider which ones we can proceed with at pace and very soon.