Toxic Theresa May’s “hostile environment” is the worst scandal of recent years. She must resign or be removed

[Image: Pride’s Purge.]

As long as Theresa May remains in the government, the wrong that has been done to the Windrush Generation is not going to be corrected.

Theresa May must go. She can resign, or she can be forced out – I don’t mind which – but she cannot be allowed to stay.

The appointment of Sajid Javid – a BAME minister who Mrs May doesn’t like, let’s not forget (she demoted him when she became PM) – seems to be a token gesture: “Let’s put a second-generation migrant, son-of-a-Pakistani-bus-driver in as Home Secretary and everybody will think we’ve changed – so we won’t have to.”

And – bearing in mind it’s more than a week since the Windrush scandal broke – nothing has changed so far. Let’s consider what that means, with a summary of Mrs May’s attacks on immigrants – both legal and otherwise – courtesy of Dylan Strain on Twitter:

Not only did Mrs May allow this “abomination” to grow to such proportions that it is now a “stain on our national character” – she rewarded those who were responsible for it:

When Mrs May became unelected prime minister (remember: she became Conservative leader because her opponent stood down, and at last year’s general election she lost her party’s Parliamentary majority), she appointed Amber Rudd as Home Secretary. At the 2016 Tory conference Ms Rudd gave an address that led to her being reported to the police on a charge of making racist hate speech.

Ms Rudd wrote a letter to Mrs May in January 2017, promising to increase deportations of people the Conservative government has decided should no longer be allowed to live in the UK by 10 per cent. I cannot, in good conscience, say that this policy was directed at illegal immigrants – as the Conservatives are rather desperately trying to assert – because it has become clear that people with every right to remain in this country were targeted from the moment Mrs May became Home Secretary, never mind Ms Rudd.

(I’m not sure Natalie Rowe’s suggestion is accurate; we don’t know that this was the intention. But it is certainly what happened, and we may deduce that legal residents were targeted in order to meet the increased targets being demanded by Ms Rudd and Mrs May.)

Last week, Ms Rudd lied to a Parliamentary committee, claiming that there were no deportation targets. Then she lied to the Commons themselves, saying she had not known the targets existed – despite having set them in January last year. When her letter discussing these targets with Mrs May became public, she had no choice other than to resign.

Instead of going, Mrs May is trying to draw a line under the matter. But the fact exists that she did receive a letter from Amber Rudd discussing deportation targets.

James O’Brien discussed the implications on his LBC show:

So – as Rachael Maskell argued in Parliament, it seems Amber Rudd was the scapegoat – just one more of Mrs May’s subordinates who was sacked for carrying out her policies:

Mrs May herself has confirmed that she knew the Home Office had targets for the removal of illegal immigrants. Note the word “illegal”. She said: “When I was home secretary, yes, there were targets in terms of removing people from the country, who were here illegally.”

But she didn’t lift a finger when it became clear that people with every right to be in the UK were also being deported – and, as Dylan Strain has pointed out in his Twitter thread (above), she has known for years.

So the argument that Mrs May is in the clear because she may not have heard Amber Rudd misleading a committee, or may not have bothered about it because Ms Rudd corrected what she said the following morning, simply doesn’t add up. Ms Rudd’s correction was also a lie and Mrs May knew it, because she knew all about the targets. But she still allowed her MPs to make public displays of support for Ms Rudd, despite knowing that they were based on false information.

It implies an intention to mislead the public, from which Mrs May cannot slither away.

We should tackle the use of “illegal immigration” by Conservative MPs.

It is, indeed, a disgrace. The prime minister of the UK has known for years that legal citizens of the UK were being targeted by her “hostile environment” policy, that she and her party are still claiming was aimed at “illegal immigration”. If she had done anything at all to stop legal citizens being targeted, then they might be justified in using this excuse. She did not, so they are not.

Now we have a new Home Secretary, Sajid Javid – just another human shield for Mrs May, as Owen Jones explains:

And the “hostile environment” policy goes on – renamed the “compliant environment” by Mr Javid. Those two words mask a multitude of sinister – no, call them what they are: downright evil – meanings, as David Lammy explained:

These crimes against UK citizens are still happening, with the blessing of Theresa May’s government – and will continue happening as long as she is prime minister.

Mrs May has inflicted the policy on the country and has lied repeatedly and bare-facedly in order to keep it going. It is intolerable. She must not be allowed to get away with it. We must demand her resignation – or removal.


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No Comments

  1. MerryMichaelW May 1, 2018 at 11:05 am - Reply

    This is great work, Mike. Thanks, and well done. :-)

  2. Barry May 1, 2018 at 11:15 am - Reply

    Just for once May is correct, there should be a hostile environment for illegal migrants, they have no right to be here, and no matter how many bumbling idiots labour have trying to pretend they have the right to remain it remains illegal means they should not be here.

    • Mike Sivier May 1, 2018 at 8:51 pm - Reply

      The problem is that her policy doesn’t just target illegal immigrants – it targets UK citizens.
      Have you not understood that?
      Labour has never tried to pretend that illegal immigrants have a right to remain in the UK.
      Please at least try to understand the facts of this matter.

      • JohnDee May 1, 2018 at 10:40 pm - Reply

        DFTT – they get a bonus when you bite!

  3. NMac May 1, 2018 at 11:47 am - Reply

    I just hope that May isn’t let off the hook on this one. The pressure on her to resign should continue unabated.

  4. J Edington May 1, 2018 at 12:58 pm - Reply

    Much as I agree with your sentiments about May, I can’t help the feeling of “better the devil you know”. If she resigns, who do you suppose would take over? I suspect they would have no different opinion on immigration and would be considerably worse on most other issues. Maybe better to keep her stumbling along incompetently to ensure the Tories are ousted in the next GE. A lot of harm will have been done by then, mind, whoever leads the pack.

    • Mike Sivier May 1, 2018 at 6:41 pm - Reply

      If Theresa May goes, there’s no guarantee the DUP will want to keep propping up the Tories. Anyone coming in might not want to honour any deal.

    • JohnDee May 1, 2018 at 7:34 pm - Reply

      ” … stumbling along incompetently … ” – she’s been doing this on behalf of the country for far too many years. In case you hadn’t noticed (5 UN reports of disability treaty violations) this government is consciously murdering vulnerable disabled people.

      Whilst the government sends arms and expertise to kill Sudanese cholera-infected children, brides, wedding guests and other civilians, do you suggest we suffer a few more x thousand deaths to ensure a political advantage in the next election?

      Who are you? a (s)tory shill, or what?

  5. JohnDee May 1, 2018 at 10:35 pm - Reply

    Although, I’m sure the Sudanese victims might take their personal attacks, far more personally, don’t you think, Mike?

    • Mike Sivier May 2, 2018 at 12:50 am - Reply

      Sure – but you can make that point without attacking another person on This Site. It’s as I always say – play the ball, not the other person.

  6. Pat Sheehan May 1, 2018 at 11:15 pm - Reply

    It can never be acceptable to the electorate that unacceptable behavior by very senior ministers is permitted to go unchecked. That would be appeasement and we know where that can lead. No! It’s time to wake up! The ‘distinctions’ between so-called ‘democracy’ and ‘dictatorship’ are being blurred before our eyes on a daily basis now despite the existence of hard evidence to prove that the ‘Prime-Minister’ has actively and covertly supported ‘breaches of the Ministerial Code’ by very senior ministers with ‘international standing’ under her direct control. In countering this unscrupulous and merciless behavior we need feel no mercy ourselves: we are dealing with a cancerous growth deeply embedded within our political system and if there is one last thing worth saving within that creaking, rotting structure it has to be that vestige of INTEGRITY! Everything else might have to go! Perhaps we should be working to Performance Targets too!

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