Another private letter which included ‘ambitious and deliverable’ migrant deportation targets has emerged, after Amber Rudd claimed she knew nothing about them.
Rudd appears to have signed the correspondence, which says that she is aiming to ‘increase the number of enforced removals by more than ten per cent’, in January last year.
After Rudd claimed that she had never seen a previous memo referencing immigration targets, the former immigration minister Brandon Lewis suggested that the increase was an ambition rather than a target, reports The Guardian.
Another private letter which included ‘ambitious and deliverable’ targets for the deportation of immigrants has emerged, after Amber Rudd claimed she knew nothing about such targets
Rudd appears to have signed the correspondence, which says that she is aiming to ‘increase the number of enforced removals by more than ten per cent’
The six-page page memo prepared by Hugh Ind, the director general of Immigration Enforcement in the Home Office used policy ideas outlined by Rudd in her private letter.
Included in the document which targets such as ‘achieving 12,800 enforced returns in 2017/18’.
The note was also addressed to Marc Owen, senior director of national and international operations in Immigration Enforcement, Mark Thomson, the director general of the Passport Office and Tony Eastaugh, UK director of operations at Immigration Enforcement.
Brandon Lewis suggested that the increase in immigration removal was an ambition rather than a target, reports The Guardian
It was also sent to Gareth Hills, director of performance and risk at the Home Office., Stephen Kershaw, a senior director in Immigration Enforcement, Andrew Wren, director of performance, assurance and governance at the Home Office and Andrew Whitten, assistant director at the Home Office.
It is ‘shame-faced nonsense’ to suggest that her department don’t have targets on immigrant, or that they are not discussed, Home Office sources told the newspaper.
Earlier today Brandon Lewis admitted Rudd did know about plans to increase the number of illegal immigrants kicked out of the UK – but insisted they were not ‘targets’.
The Home Secretary is battling to cling on to her job amid calls to resign after she told MPs she did not know her officials used deportation targets and does not agree with them.
But a leaked memo sent to her and former Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis last year detailed the plans to kick out another 10 per cent of illegal immigrants.
Ms Rudd has insisted she did not read the memo, but is facing a growing clamour to resign amid criticisms she either misled MPs or does not have a grip on her department.
Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show today, Mr Lewis admitted Ms Rudd did know about the ‘ambition’ to deport an extra 10 per cent of illegal immigrants.
Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show today, Brandon Lewis admitted Ms Rudd did know about the ‘ambition’ to deport an extra 10 per cent of illegal immigrants
But he insisted this is different to the ‘targets’ she was quizzed about at the Home Affairs Select Committee last week.
However, the revelation will pile further pressure on Ms Rudd who is only just clinging on to her job and will return to the Commons tomorrow to face a fresh grilling.
Speaking today, Mr Lewis today admitted that he did read the memo and was aware of the deportation targets.
He told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show ‘That memo to me was about looking at the results from the previous year – the team outlined to me plans for a 10 per cent increase in illegal deportations.
‘Amber was right in what she said. If you look at what she was asked about at the select committee – she was not aware of that….That memo did not make out those internal targets…
‘She was aware of the increase that we wanted to remove nationally, those internal targets were not something she was aware of.
Mr Lewis said the difference between a specific local ‘target’ and a national ‘ambition’ is an ‘important distinction’.
But the presenter Andrew Marr hit back: ‘This is a target – going back to the memo it says that progress has been made on the 10 per cent increase across the board on enforced removals that we promised to the Home Secretary.
Transport Minister Jo Johnson backed Ms Rudd to stay in her job – saying she is a ‘fantastic’ minster dedicated to her job.
Defending her claims not to have known about the targets he said she has got a ‘very big’ brief and added: ‘Its unrealistic to expect a secretary of state to have seen every single memo.’
But Labour’s shadow home secretary Diane Abbott MP accused Mr Lewis of of hiding behind language and trying to ‘spin’ his way out of a crisis.
The Home Secretary (pictured in Downing Street last week) is battling to cling on to her job amid calls to resign after she told MPs she did not know her officials used deportation targets and does not agree with them.
She said: ‘Brandon Lewis’s attempt to save the Home Secretary’s career by hiding behind semantics is insulting for the people who have been affected by the Tories’ heartless policies.
‘Beneath the spin, he let the truth slip and sealed her fate. Amber Rudd knew of the targets she pretended didn’t exist.
‘The Home Office was fully aware that lives were being ruined as a result of their ‘hostile environment’ but pressed ahead anyway. It’s time for Rudd to go.’