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Government will ‘stop at nothing’ to maintain the hostile environment, Labour says

Shadow immigration secretary Bell Ribeiro-Addy slammed the Tories after a report branding the Home Office ‘institutionally racist’ was allegedly watered down

LABOUR accused the government today of “stopping at nothing” to maintain the hostile environment after a report branding the Home Office “institutionally racist” was allegedly watered down. 

The Times reported that the most damning findings in leaked copies of the draft Windrush review have now been stripped out. 

Sources also told the paper that the latest version of the delayed review removes earlier recommendations that people who came to the country as children should not face deportation. 

The allegations have been met with outrage from politicians and anti-racist campaigners.

Shadow immigration secretary Bell Ribeiro-Addy accused the Home Office of “leaning on officials” to “water down” the findings. 

“This only proves that they’re unwilling to learn any lessons from the scandal and will stop at nothing to maintain the hostile environment,” the Streatham Labour MP wrote on social media. 

The Windrush review, which is being led by inspector of constabulary Wendy Williams, was commissioned in 2018 after dozens of British citizens were wrongfully detained and deported to the Caribbean.

Labour MP David Lammy warned ministers not to water down the report, demanding that the “truth must be printed in full.” 

“The victims’ nationality and rights were denied because of the colour of their skin,” he said. “If this is not institutionally racist I have no idea what is.”

Windrush and anti-racist campaigner Zita Holbourne branded attempts to water down the review an “absolute disgrace.” 

“The message it sends not only to the Windrush generation but subsequent generations ... is that our lives do not matter, our contribution to British society and the economy is worthless, and that they were never serious about trying to address the wrongs of their actions,” she told the Star.  

Ms Holbourne also raised concerns that if the findings of the report are watered down, the recommended actions will be as well. 

“The government doesn’t wish to have the very serious issue of direct racism levelled at them and exposed in an official government report,” the campaigner explained.

Such findings would prompt the creation of measures to “prevent acts of racist injustice” in the future, she said. 

The latest development in the Windrush scandal comes a week after 17 men were deported to Jamaica on a Home Office charter flight.

The flight, which went ahead despite a court order, prompted campaigners to accuse the government of “learning nothing” from Windrush. 

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