Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

‘Windrush lessons will go unlearned for now’

Anger and disappointment as Home Secretary drops report reforms

‘Windrush lessons will go unlearned for now’

“I WAS clear when Wendy Williams published her Windrush Lessons Learned review that I would listen and act. I will be accepting the recommendations she has made in full”.

That was what home secretary Priti Patel told the Commons three years ago. But last week, her successor, Suella Braverman, withdrew that commitment, as she confirmed the government will ditch several of those commitments to act on the lessons of the scandal.


The government had promised to hold formal reconciliation events with the Windrush generation. Those will not now happen.

The commitment to appoint a migrants commissioner and to review the powers of the Independent Commission for Immigration and Borders (ICIBI) are also cancelled.

Criticism was not confined to opposition parties. Kevin Foster, the Conservative MP for Torbay, who was a Home Office immigration minister from 2019 to 2022, went public with his disappointment about the promises which would not now be kept.

Kevin Kevin Foster (Pic: LinkedIn)

“The Windrush scandal was a stain on this country. Committing to implement all of Wendy William’s recommendations was a key part of rebuilding confidence with the communities affected,” he wrote.

Williams’ review combined insight into the causes of the scandal with a constructive agenda for change. It found that the life-wrecking mistreatment of those whose rights were not recognised by the state was no mere bureaucratic muddle, but a “profound institutional failure” rooted in the Home Office’s “institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness on issues of race”.

Warning signs had been ignored. An action plan for institutional reform had to be underpinned by a profound shift in the departmental culture.

Inquiry reports too often sit on the shelf. The most promising sign that the Home Office took this one seriously was inviting its author back to the department to review progress.

Williams’ spring 2022 update reported a mixed picture. Mandarins and ministers welcomed the acknowledgment of significant efforts to implement the change plan – but her central theme was a growing gap between an internal perception of significant change and much more scepticism from external stakeholders, especially those directly affected.

External scrutiny was crucial to improve the “accountability, effectiveness and legitimacy” of the department and – above all – to rebuild broken trust, she argued. But it was no coincidence that the recommendations strengthening external scrutiny were the most likely to remain unmet. This was an important indicator that the Home Office was “not yet confident enough” to welcome the type of scrutiny envisaged, said Williams.

Braverman’s reasons for rejecting the recommendations rather confirm that analysis. “External bodies are not the only source of scrutiny,” she argued, suggesting that the department can “shift culture and subject ourselves to scrutiny,” instead.

LEAD Comment Windrush INSET Suella Braverman Suella Braverman

The government wants to declare the Windrush lessons learned and move on. Politically, key lessons of the scandal – the need to “see the face behind the case” and to pay heed to unintended consequences of “hostile environment” measures for those with legal status – complicate the government’s hardening line on immigration.

The government is pursuing a tougher approach to immigration even while public attitudes soften. Yet, there is some political logic to this, if the Conservatives are primarily focused on shoring up a core vote among the toughest third of the electorate. There is a striking partisan gulf in the priority given to immigration, in the latest Ipsos-Mori “issues index”.

Immigration – fourth overall – ranks third for Conservative supporters (29 per cent), yet is only the 14th priority of Labour voters (five per cent).

Whether Labour will offer continuity or change on immigration is not a simple question. The public do not see immigration as a single one-size-fits-all issue.

Comment inset Sunder Sunder Katwala

Labour accepts the post-Brexit points system, which reflects a broad political and public consensus on who gets a visa to work and study in the UK. Asylum is more polarising. Labour would scrap the Rwanda plan, which it calls an expensive and unworkable gimmick, but it needs its own plan for how the asylum system can combine control and compassion. The Windrush U-turn offers an opportunity to the opposition to differentiate with confidence, by committing to implement

the recommendations in full.

The government cannot bring ‘closure’ to the scandal without the reconciliation events which were promised. The further delay is regrettable, given the age of those directly affected. The next government could engage faith leaders and others in how to give these events status and meaning as an early post-election priority.

The U-turn last week was called a ‘slap in the face’ for the Windrush generation, particularly in this year of the 75th anniversary of the Windrush’s arrival in the UK.

But it is not the end of the story. Implementing the forward-looking proposals for a migrants commissioner and more independent ICIBI could form part of a broader agenda for transparency and accountability.

The next home secretary should invite Williams back to the department once again – to show that the post-Windrush agenda for cultural change can be put back on track.

More For You

Singh and Carter were empathic
leaders as well as great humanists’

File photograph of former US president Jimmy Carter with Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi, on October 27, 2006

Singh and Carter were empathic leaders as well as great humanists’

Dinesh Sharma

THE world lost two remarkable leaders last month – the 13th prime minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh, (September 26, 1932-December 26, 2024).and the 39th president of the US, Jimmy Carter (October 1, 1924-December 29, 2024).

We are all mourning their loss in our hearts and minds. Certainly, those of us who still see the world through John Lennon’s rose-coloured glasses will know this marks the end of an era in global politics. Imagine all the people; /Livin’ life in peace; /You may say I’m a dreamer; / But I’m not the only one; /I hope someday you’ll join us;/ And the world will be as one (Imagine, John Lennon, 1971) Both Singh and Carter were authentic leaders and great humanists. While Carter was left of Singh in policy, they were both liberals – Singh was a centrist technocrat with policies that uplifted the poor. They were good and decent human beings, because they upheld a view of human nature that is essentially good, civil, and always thinking of others even in the middle of bitter political rivalries, qualities we need in leaders today as our world seems increasingly fractious, self-absorbed and devolving. Experts claim authentic leadership is driven by:

Keep ReadingShow less
Why this was the year of governing anxiously

Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer at the state opening of parliament in July after Labour won the general elections by a landslide

Why this was the year of governing anxiously

THIS year was literally one of two halves in the British government.

Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer each had six months in Downing Street, give or take a handful of days in July. Yet this was the year of governing anxiously.

Keep ReadingShow less
‘Debate over assisted dying raises risks for medical staff’
Supporters of the ‘Not Dead Yet’ campaign outside parliament last Friday (29) in London

‘Debate over assisted dying raises risks for medical staff’

Dr Raj Persaud

AFTER five hours of debate over assisted dying, a historic private members’ bill passed its second reading in the House of Commons. This is a stunning change in the way we as a nation consider ending our lives.

We know from survey research that the religious tend to be against assisted dying. Given Asians in the UK tend to be more religious, comparatively, it is likely that Asians in general are less supportive of this new proposed legislation, compared to the general public.

Keep ReadingShow less
‘It’s time for UK-India ties to focus on a joint growth story’
Kanishka Narayan (centre) with fellow visiting British MPs, Rajasthan chief minister Bhajan Lal Sharma (left) and other officials

‘It’s time for UK-India ties to focus on a joint growth story’

Kanishka Narayan

FOUR months since my election to parliament, I had the opportunity to join my parliamentary colleagues on a delegation to India, visiting Delhi and Jaipur for conversations with our Indian counterparts, business leaders and academics.

I went to make the case for Indian investment in my constituency and across the UK.

Keep ReadingShow less
‘Ministers must unveil vision for bridging societal divides’
(From left) Professor Ted Cantle, Sunder Katwala, Sara Khan and John Denham at the event

‘Ministers must unveil vision for bridging societal divides’

Sunder Katwala

“SOCIAL cohesion is not the absence of riots.”

John Denham put that central point pithily at the ‘After the Riots’ cohesion summit last week.

Keep ReadingShow less