Westminster today: Amber Rudd defends government over Windrush scandal as Theresa May insists 'hostile environment' will stay - as it happened

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Amber Rudd has defended the government over the Windrush fiasco as she appeared in front of the Home Affairs Committee.

Jeremy Corbyn had earlier called on the Home Secretary to “take responsibility and resign” over the scandal, which has engulfed the government in recent days.

During Prime Minister's Questions, Mr Corbyn also challenged Theresa May to explain why she ignored Home Office warnings about the potential discrimination caused by the “hostile environment” policies introduced during Ms May’s tenure at the Home Office.

He pointed to an internal memo from the department in 2014 which said the approach could make it harder for people, such as the Windrush generation, to find homes and “provoke discrimination”.

Ms May, formerly home secretary, replied by quoting Labour's Liam Byrne talking of a hostile environment when immigration minister under the previous Labour administration.

As it happened...

Key Points

• David Davis says MPs will be able to amend final Brexit motion
• Theresa May and Boris Johnson clash over immigration
• Dozens of MPs accompany Labour's Ruth Smeeth to give evidence at hearing of Labour member who heckled her at antisemitism event

[25 April 2018 12:14 · Kristin Hugo]

[25 April 2018 12:20 · Kristin Hugo]

Jeremy Corbyn says that, had the Windrush generation not mounted the campaign they had, "there would be no compensation, there would be no review, there would be no apology" .

He says there needs to be a review that covers more than just immigration law, and should also include cuts to legal aid, which he says made the government's tougher immigration laws harder to challenge.

Theresa May should confirm that "the "hostile environment is over", he says, adding: "The Windrush generation served this country and deserve better than this."

May draws a distinction between legal and illegal immigrants, again quoting a Labour MP - this time Yvette Cooper - who she says said in 2013: "We need much stronger action from government to bring illegal immigration down"

[25 April 2018 12:23 · Kristin Hugo]

Jeremy Corbyn calls on Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, to resign. 

He says:

"Last week the current Home Secretary admitted the Home Office sometimes loses sight of the individual, yet we now know that when she took over from her predecessor her intent was to harden this cruel and misdirected policy, pledging to do so ruthlessly.

"A report last month by immigration officials stated the hostile environment measures were not even having the desired effect.

"The current Home Secretary inherited a failing policy and made it worse. Isn't it time she took responsibility and resigned?"

Theresa May doesn't directly answer but lays into Labour, saying a government led by Corbyn would "not be kind or fair to anybody". That's the end of their exchange, which was bad-tempered but not particularly effective for either of them.

[25 April 2018 12:25 · Kristin Hugo]

[25 April 2018 12:31 · Kristin Hugo]

[25 April 2018 12:38 · Kristin Hugo]

Tory MP Geoffrey Clifton Brown asks about the need to support financial services during the Brexit process.

Theresa May says this is an "important issue" and that financial services will be part of a "deep and comprehensive partnership" that the UK wants to negotiate with the EU.

[25 April 2018 12:40 · Kristin Hugo]

Lucy Powell asks Theresa May to praise Labour-run Manchester City Council for building affordable homes for local people.  

The PM says "it is important that we are providing homes and building homes for people", saying more affordable homes have been delivered in the last seven years than in the last seven years of the Labour government. That's partly because the Conservatives changed the definition of affordable...

[25 April 2018 12:51 · Kristin Hugo]

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable asks how, in light of the Windrush scandal, the Home Office is going to be able to handle the registration of the 3 million EU citizens living in the UK. 

He raises the issue of new government data protection laws that will stop people accessing their immigration data if releasing it would “undermine immigration control".

May says this interpretation is "not correct" and that it "will be possible for people to access data that they need to have available".

[25 April 2018 13:03 · Kristin Hugo]

Explosive from Labour's Yvette Cooper, the chair of the Home Affairs Committee. Theresa May quoted her earlier in PMQs having called for a tougher stance on illegal immigration. An angry Ms Cooper says:

"I was not going to raise this but the Prime Minister quoted me. Let me say to the Prime Minister: Do not try to hide behind me or the Labour Party when she was warned repeatedly of the damage her obsession with her net migration target was doing, do not try to hide behind the Cabinet when they don't agree with you on this and are trying to clear up the mess, and do not try to hide behind civil servants when she set the policies instilled in them - the culture of disbelief - and when the high commissioners told us this morning that they had warned the Foreign Office about the Windrush generation immigration problems in 2016."

What did she do? Because a few years ago the Prime Minister said, 'I'm sick and tired of a government minister who simply blames other people when something goes wrong'. What's changed?"

May replies:

"Nobody is trying to blame anybody else. The question of the Windrush generation arises from the fact that when they came here, they were not documented - their status to live here was not documented."

[25 April 2018 13:22 · Kristin Hugo]