The Windrush backstory to Starmer’s ‘campaign’ to let foreign criminals stay | Politics news

As farmers descended on Whitehall for another protest against changes to inheritance tax, Kemi Badenoch used PMQs not to attack Sir Keir on the issue – but to grill him on immigration.

It was a risky decision given her party’s own record on the issue – it was just a fortnight ago that revised figures from the ONS showed net migration reaching a record highs of almost a million under the Tories’ watch.

Ms Badenoch has recently admitted that The Tories got immigration “wrong” – so maybe feel politically able to criticize the government on the subject.

Politics Live: Badenoch ‘misfires’ with PMQs topic

She particularly attacked Sir Keir over some of his work on immigration before he became Labor leader – accusing him of “demanding that foreign criminals be allowed to stay in Britain”.

It might be a line of attack we’re starting to see more often – but what exactly is she talking about?

During PMQs, Ms Badenoch said: “Four years ago the Prime Minister signed a letter demanding that foreign criminals be allowed to stay in the UK. Dozens of Labor and Lib Dem MPs repeatedly signed those letters, insisting that rapists and murderers were allowed to stay here.”

She added that one of those criminals was Ernesto Elliott, who she said had 17 convictions and continued to kill someone after his deportation was blocked.

Mrs Badenoch referred to a letter signed by Sir Keir in February 2020, a few months before he was elected Labor leader.

The letter to the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson expressed opposition to plans to deport about 50 people with criminal convictions to Jamaica on a chartered plane.

It highlighted that two years earlier Windrush scandal had “shaken this country” after the government was found to have been detaining and deporting people who had the right to live in the UK for decades.

It noted that at the height of the scandal, “the government suspended charter flights as they could not guarantee that no wrongful deportation would take place”.

The letter warned that the upcoming deportation flight carried a risk of removing people with a Windrush claim, and called for “all further deportations” to be canceled until 5pm. Windrush Lessons Learned Review was published and its recommendations implemented.

The flight referred to by the MPs eventually took off, but with 17 people instead of 50 after last-minute legal challenges.

The government lost a warrant after a judge said some of those detained had not been able to get proper access to legal advice.

The Home Office had said those deported were guilty of serious crimes such as manslaughter, rape and trafficking in Class A drugs.

But campaigners argued that some of the people affected had lived in the UK since they were children, committed one-off offenses when they were young and had no links to Jamaica. They claimed it was a “double punishment” as these people had already served their time.

Those on board should have served a total of 75 years in prison.

Ernesto Elliott, to whom Ms Badenoch referred, was due to be on another deportation flight on December 2, 2020 after being convicted of knife crime, according to media reports.

His deportation was blocked along with several others following a legal challenge, and in 2023 he was convicted of robbing and fatally stabbing a man in Greenwich, London.

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Ms Badenoch accused Sir Keir of “repeatedly signing letters” – although it is not clear what else she is referring to, as he did not sign the letter from MPs calling for an end to the deportation flight in December.

More than 80 black public figures had campaigned against this escape, including model Naomi Campbell and historian David Olusoga.

The decision to grant some people a reprieve was ultimately made by the courts.

Sir Keir responded to the attack by saying he prosecuted criminals for five years when he was director of the Crown Prosecution Service and dedicated his life to locking up criminals.

He accused Ms Badenoch of failing to show a “semblance of remorse” over the Tories’ immigration failure and compared her to “an arsonist complaining about the person who put the fire out.”