David Lammy accuses government of 'pandering to racism' over Windrush scandal

David Lammy has accused the government of "pandering to a far-right racism" over its handling of the Windrush scandal.

The Labour MP made the remark after it emerged that a further 18 people were wrongly sent back to the Caribbean - three who died before they could return to the UK.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid made the admission in the House of Commons on Tuesday, saying that he had written to the 15 living victims to apologise.

But Mr Lammy, the MP for Tottenham, branded the latest deportations "nothing less than a national scandal".

The Windrush generation made its way to the UK from 1948. Credit: PA

"Every single one of these cases is a shocking indictment of your government's pandering to a far-right racism, sham immigration targets and the dog-whistle of the right-wing press," Mr Lammy said.

The former minister also hit out at stories this week of a charter flight to Jamaica deporting "up to 50 black British residents".

Mr Lammy questioned Mr Javid whether he could be sure he was "not making the same mistakes" as with Windrush, adding: "Once enslaved, then colonised, and now repatriated."

Mr Javid hit back, saying the scheduled deportations were a charter flight "of foreign national offenders only", and that "every single one of them [was] convicted of a serious crime".

The Home Secretary also took issue with the questions posed of him, saying the Labour MP "does himself a huge disservice in the way that he speaks and the tone that he's used to suggest there is even an ounce of racism in this House".