Nick Thomas-Symonds MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, commenting on news the Equality and Human Rights Committee, is taking legal action over the Home Office’s Windrush and ‘hostile environment’ policies, said:
“This is a damning indictment of the Conservatives and their failing of the Windrush Generation.
“It is an absolute scandal that the Government allowed this situation to arise and unforgivable that it has failed to address quickly the deep hurt caused, including being so slow to process the compensation people are due.
“This is yet another reminder of why so many Black British people feel such hurt and why change is desperately needed. We will be following this work closely and holding the Government to account on its findings.”
“It is absolutely right that the EHRC has taken the unprecedented step of beginning legal action to review whether the Home Office broke equality laws in its appalling treatment of the Windrush Generation.
“As a result of the hostile environment, thousands of black Britons were detained, deported, made homeless, jobless or denied healthcare by their own Government. These were people like my parents, who came to this country after the Second World War to help rebuild the UK’s crumbling public services, including the NHS.
“The Government has admitted its own wrongdoing, but these Black Britons deserve so much more than an apology. As the world demands action on racial inequalities, the Windrush Generation need compensation that is actually paid out, and structural change so that this gross injustice can never repeat itself.”
