Senior civil servant accused of ‘costing Amber Rudd her job’
1 min read
A senior civil servant has been accused of costing Amber Rudd her job by passing the former Home Secretary false information on immigration removal targets.
According to The Sun, immigration and enforcement chief Hugh Ind is under pressure over his role in Ms Rudd’s disastrous select committee appearance last week that eventually lead to her resignation.
Ms Rudd's position first came under threat over the Windrush scandal, which saw immigrants from the Caribbean threatened with deportation, denied NHS treatment and left homeless despite having lived in the UK for decades.
She then told MPs on the Home Affairs Committee that there were no targets for the removal illegal immigrants, despite evidence showing there was.
But in leaked emails, seen by The Sun, Mr Ind told Ms Rudd’s advisers at the time that there were “no removal targets for immigration enforcement officers, regional or national”.
According to the newspaper, the information was sent after Lucy Moreton of the Border Force union had informed the committee that there were targets.
When Ms Rudd was later questioned on the issue, she replied: “That’s not the way we operate.”
Tory MPs are also said to be angry that memos apparently proving that the former Cabinet minister did have knowledge of the Home office’s removal targets were leaked to the press.
One senior Conservative said: “There is a big feeling civil servants decided to do her in.”
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