Amber Rudd’s Resignation: Is This The Unravelling of The British Tory Government?
The Home Secretary of the United Kingdom resigned late last night, rather than face another interrogation in Parliament today regarding her denial of a particular policy that her department had, in fact, being pursuing. She claimed that she had ‘inadvertently misled’ Parliament. But how is her action inadvertent when she was the one who drove the policy? She was either incompetent or a deliberate liar, which still did not show up her talent too well. Her position had become increasingly untenable after 200 MPs (lawmakers) signed a letter accusing her of making up immigration policy ‘on the hoof’, instead of having a clear, coherent strategy.
In her letter published in the Guardian, she said, “The Windrush scandal has rightly shone a light on an important issue for our country. As so often the instincts of the British people are right. They want people who have a right to live here to be treated fairly and humanely, which has sometimes not been the case. But they also want the government to remove those who don’t have the right to be here”.
She obviously failed to get that balance right.
Instead, for political gain she, and Theresa May before her, chose to focus on soft targets instead: the vulnerable children of Windrush immigrants who arrived in 1948, at Britain’s invitation, to help build the country after the war. They were promised citizenship for themselves and the children who arrived with them, or joined them later, but these offsprings were never issued with proper documents to confirm their citizenship status.
Sixty-six years later, in 2014, the discriminatory actions began in earnest, with treatment that was callous, heartless, and inhumane. Since then, some have hounded to show their papers, or deported, being forcibly separated from their families. In the process, they lost their jobs and homes, and were even deprived of basic health care, welfare, and other services due to them as bonafide citizens of the UK. One man was not even allowed to return to Britain attend his mother’s funeral.
But these Windrush children had one thing in common: they were all Black, and seen as easy targets to get rid of, because only White people clearly belong in Britain, no matter their contribution or length of residence! The Tory Minister thought the British people would back them in the government’s heartless actions, but the policy backfired badly when the Guardian unearthed it, because we British have a strong sense of justice, above all, when it comes to how people are treated.
Just because they had no papers didn’t make them illegal. They came here rightfully with their parents, and should have been given their documents years ago. Instead, many of them in their 60s now, and knowing no other country, were being treated like illegal immigrants to fulfil immigration targets which Amber Rudd actually denied. There has been an outcry, and, when leaked papers on Sunday (from her department) showed up her own reasonability within it, she had to go.
One silver lining that has emerged from the resignation is Sajid Javid’s appointment as Home Secretary, the first ever visible minority to such a post, and the only minority member in May’s virtually all-White cabinet. He had seemingly been snubbed for a higher post when she became Prime Minister, despite, his experience of heading three major departments. But though deserving of this, his presence is being cynically used to deflect and distract from the debacle.
However, the real problem now is that Theresa May, when she was Home Secretary, was the architect of this ghastly callous policy, which Amber Rudd tried to enhance to get even better results. The media accused her of using Rudd as her own protective ‘shield’ to deflect attention. Now that she is gone, Will May fall on her sword too?