Amber Rudd claims 'no one wrongly deported over Windrush scandal' amid calls for resignation

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has claimed that no one has been wrongfully deported as a result of the Windrush scandal.

She told the Commons Home Affairs committee that 7,000 out of 8,000 records dating back to 2002 had been checked so far, with no cases of wrongful removal discovered.

The comments came amid calls for her resignation from Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who claimed she inherited a “failing policy” and made it “worse”.

The Labour leader blamed the scandal on “hostile environment” policies implemented by the Home Office that aimed to slash net immigration.

Ms Rudd denied that the Tories' target to bring net migration below 100,000 had fuelled the saga.

She told the committee: "I don't think that's got anything to do with it.

"It's wrong to think the net migration target is the problem here. The problem here is that people were not properly documented."

During PMQs Prime Minister Theresa May defended the Government’s intention to take action on people in the UK illegally, and vowed that no stone would be left unturned in putting right the status of the Windrush generation.

But Mr Corbyn said Ms Rudd had wanted to harden the “cruel and misdirected policy” when she took over from Mrs May at the Home Office, saying she pledged to do so “ruthlessly”.

Ms Rudd told the committee that she didn't see the Windrush scandal "as a systemic issue until very recently"

She added: "I became aware that there was a potential issue. I bitterly, deeply regret that I didn't see it as more than individual cases that had gone wrong that needed addressing."

Ms Rudd's claim that there have been no wrongful deportation seems to contradict comments made by Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes.

Asked by ITV News whether people who had been resident in the UK for decades had been deported, Ms Nokes said: "There have been some horrendous situations which as a minister have appalled me."

The SS Empire Windrush, which brought immigrants from Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and other islands, to the UK. Credit: PA

Jeremy Corbyn criticised the Home Office's immigration policy in House of Commons and called for Ms Rudds resignation.

He said: “The current Home Secretary inherited a failing policy and made it worse. Isn’t it time she took responsibility and resigned?”

Mrs May said people “up and down this country” want to ensure the Government is “taking action against those people who are here in this country illegally”.

“Because it isn’t fair that people who work hard day in and day out, who contribute to this country, who put into the life of this country, are seeing people who are here illegally accessing services in the same way,” she said.

“We are acting to ensure that those people who are here legally are given the support that they need.”

During the heated frontbench exchanges, Mrs May also said the Government was “not ignoring the problems that some members of this generation are facing” after she claimed Mr Corbyn’s questions suggested Labour were “ignoring some of the facts”.

“That is why (Ms Rudd) has set out a special team in the Home Office to deal with their inquiries, not just deal with their inquiries but actively help them to find the documentation to clarify their status,” Mrs May said.

She added: “The problem was that back prior to 1973 when the Windrush generation came here they were not given documents that set out their status – we are now putting that right and we will leave no stone unturned to put that right.”