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Theresa May’s former aide defends hostile environment as ‘sensible policy’ despite Windrush scandal

Theresa May with her joint chief of staff Nick Timothy: Reuters
Theresa May with her joint chief of staff Nick Timothy: Reuters

Theresa May’s former aide has defended the hostile environment policy as “sensible” in comments that have prompted accusations of “wilful ignorance” of the impact of policies which led to the Windrush scandal.

Nick Timothy, who was political advisor to Ms May in the year to June 2017, said it “wasn’t right” to criticise the Conservative government for bringing about the measures, adding that he continued to think it was a “sensible policy”.

When asked about Windrush during an interview with Politico, he added: “The hostile environment policy is so called because rather than trying to locate, arrest and deport your way out of the problem of illegal immigration, really what we need to do is make the country harder to live in if you’re here illegally ... I continue to think this is a sensible policy.

“The problem was this was applied mistakenly to people who didn’t have documents to prove that they were in the country legally ... I was never warned about the existence of this cohort of people who couldn’t prove that they were legally British.”

It comes less than two months after the long-awaited Windrush Lessons Learned Review recommended that the home secretary should commission a full review and evaluation of the hostile environment policy to assess whether it is “effective” in meeting its stated aim, given its impact on British citizens and migrants with status.

The review also accused the Home Office of displaying “institutional ignorance and thoughtlessness” on race throughout the Windrush scandal, and found that those affected were let down by “systemic operational failings”.

Minnie Rahman, campaigns and public affairs manager at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI), said Mr Timothy’s defence of the hostile environment showed “astounding ignorance and callousness”.

She continued: “The Windrush Lessons Learned Review confirmed that the political drive to cut immigration and treat people as numbers led to increasingly draconian legislation and rules while the impact on individuals was ignored. Warnings about the discriminatory and dangerous effects of the hostile environment were ignored by policy makers at all stages.”

Labour MP Bell Riberio-Addy echoed her remarks, saying Mr Timothy’s comments highlighted the “utter disconnect between Conservative policy makers and the migrants who continue to be hurt by their hostile environment immigration policies”.

She added: “This is someone who was a senior adviser to the home secretary who oversaw much of the Windrush Scandal. The fact that he is publicly standing by such clearly discriminatory policies – which led to detention, deportation, destitution and even death for Commonwealth citizens who had every right to be in the UK — conveys his party’s continuing wilful ignorance about the impact of structural racism in the UK.”

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