Windrush scandal: Labour MP David Lammy told to ‘go back home’

A black Labour MP who has spoken out against the Windrush scandal has received hate mail telling him to ‘go back home’.

David Lammy, who was born in north London, has led criticisms of the Government for threatening to deport migrants who have spent nearly their entire lives in the UK.

But he has received an abusive letter branding him ‘vile’ and telling him to ‘go back to the country of your forbears’.

The letter, sent last week, said: ‘For God’s sake man stop your vile and obscene speeches knocking this country down.

‘Be grateful that we have taken you in as a black man and given you a life here, as we have done for all those black people who came to live here.

‘Be grateful man for the country that gave you a life and stop knocking it. Otherwise, go back to your country of your forbears and lets be rid of you.’

It adds: ‘If you cannot say good about us, then go back, it’s as simple as that.’

David Lammy (pictured in the House of Commons) who was born in north London, has led criticisms of the Government for threatening to deport migrants who have spent nearly their entire lives in the UK

David Lammy tweeted the abusive letter which has been sent to him - bit vowed to not be cowed by it and to carry on speaking out 

David Lammy tweeted the abusive letter which has been sent to him – bit vowed to not be cowed by it and to carry on speaking out 

The letter accuses the MP of making ‘vile’ speeches and adds: ‘You are like a little child and do not realise how lucky you have been and how well treated by the country you so easily knock.’ 

What is the Windrush scandal and how did the fiasco develop?

June 22, 1948 – The Empire Windrush passenger ship docked at Tilbury from Jamaica. 

The 492 passengers were temporarily housed near Brixton in London. Over the following decades some 500,000 came to the UK.

Many arrived on their parents’ passports and were not formally naturalised as British citizens. 

1973 – A new immigration Act comes into force putting the onus on individuals to prove they have previously been resident in the UK.

2010 – The Home Office destroyed thousands of landing card slips recording Windrush immigrants’ arrival dates in the UK.

The move came despite staff warnings that the move would make it harder to check the records of older Caribbean-born residents experiencing residency difficulties, it was claimed  

2014 – A protection that exempted Commonwealth residents from enforced removal was removed under a new law. Theresa May was Home Secretary at the time.

Under a crackdown on illegals, Windrush immigrants are obliged to provide proof they were resident in the UK before 1973.

July 2016 – Mrs May becomes Prime Minister. 

April 2018 – Allegations that Windrush immigrants are being threatened with deportation break. Theresa May issued a grovelling apology to Caribbean leaders after major backlash 

The abusive letter was tweeted by the Labour MP for Tottenham, who pointed out that he was born in Archway,  north London.

Mr Lammy said: ‘I have just received a letter telling me to be “grateful” as a black man for all “we have done for those black people who came to live here” or “go back to where ever you came from”. 

‘I was born in the Whittington Hospital the son of Windrush migrants. And I will speak for them.’

Mr Lammy has led the condemnation of ministers for the scandal, which  has seen immigrants lose their jobs, homes and pushed to the brink of suicide.

The letter was sent on April 16 – the same day Mr Lammy made a speech in the House of Commons on the fiasco branding it a ‘day of national shame’.

And he blamed Theresa May for the scandal, saying it was a direct result of her policy of introductory a ‘hostile environment’ for illegal immigrants when she was Home Secretary.

He told MPs: ‘Let us call it as it is: if you lay down with dogs, you get fleas, and that is what has happened with the far right rhetoric in this country.’

The scandal has been a huge embarrassment for the Government and overshadowed last week’s Commonwealth summit, which was hosted in London.

Both the PM and Home Secretary Amber Rudd apologoised and promised that no Windrush immigrant would be sent home.

And Mrs May said on Friday that those caught up in the scandal will get compensation.

However, Ms Rudd sparked fresh outrage last wee by blaming over zealous Home Office officials for the scandal – saying hey had ‘lost sight’ of the individual in pursuing the police. 

She has faced calls by Labour to quit over the fiasco. 

The abusive letter branded Tottenham MP David Lammy  'vile' and told him to 'go back to the country of your forbears'

The abusive letter branded Tottenham MP David Lammy  ‘vile’ and told him to ‘go back to the country of your forbears’

In a fresh development to the scandal, a leaked letter has revealed ministers were aware of risk to the Windrush generation when immigration reforms were made law. 

The letter, written in May 2016 by a Home Office Minister, will refuel a row about whether Ms Rudd should resign.

It proves ministers were aware members of the Windrush generation were facing deportation years ago.   

The letter, written the then immigration minister James Brokenshire, sent out to Labour MP Kate Hoey how the policy impacted on Trevor and Desmond Johnson. 

Both legally arrived in Britain from Jamaica as children in 1971 but faced deportation because they could not prove residency before 1973, when the law changed.

The letter, revealed today by the Guardian, lays bare what ministers knew before the scandal broke in recent days. 



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