Afzal and Diane Abbott at the Windrush Millenium Centre
Afzal and Diane Abbott at the Windrush Millenium Centre

In my role as Shadow Immigration Minister, I have been working to hold the Government to account for the scandalous treatment of the Windrush generation.

We now know that the Government was told by MPs, by campaign groups and by their own civil service that a crisis such as Windrush could break at any point due to their hostile environment policies, yet the Prime Minister went ahead and implemented them anyway. Here in Manchester I attended a number of public meetings on Widrush, and welcomed Diane Abbott to speak to over 300 members of the community to discuss how we move forward from this.

Meeting members of the Windrush generation
Meeting members of the Windrush generation

I spoke to BBC Newsnight, Sky News and CNN, highlighting that the entire Home Office is in need of drastic reform. My article in LabourList on the Windrush crisis outlined the need for an urgent change of direction in the Government’s approach to immigration enforcement. I led the emergency opposition day debate on the issue and also met with the High Commissioner for Barbados, Guy Hewitt, to discuss how we can work together to support Windrush citizens. Myself and the Shadow Home Team were incredibly proud to announce this month that the Labour Party will formally committed to ending the ‘hostile environment’ that has ruined the lives of so many British citizens, will close Yarl’s Wood and Brook House detention centres and will invest in services for survivors of trafficking and domestic violence. It’s about time this Tory government stepped aside so that their shambolic management of the Home Office can be put to an end once and for all.

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