There must be an election happening or something. We have had Vince on Marr this morning and Jo Swinson is on Peston as I write.
He was quite measured on Amber Rudd. Rather than call outright for her resignation, he said we needed to hear what she had to say to Parliament tomorrow. One of two things is true:
Either she misled Parliament or she was the last person in the Home Office to know about removal targets.
A later comment by Brandon Lewis on the same programme intensifies the case against Amber Rudd.
Lewis bullishly defended the removal targets, saying that we had to get rid of those bad criminals and illegal immigrants, didn’t we? It is very easy to become an illegal immigrant. A tiny error on a complicated Home Office form can mean that you lose your status. You are given no chance to rectify it. Yet the people responsible for an almighty scandal such as Windrush get off with a few critical newspaper headlines.
I actually hope that Amber Rudd didn’t deliberately mislead Parliament because I don’t want her replaced by some extreme Brexiteer like Gove or Grayling. There is nobody in the Conservative Party who is going to give the Home Office and immigration system the treatment it deserves: dismantling completely and being rebuilt in a fair and compassionate manner which inspires the confidence of those who use it and those who advocate on their behalf.
Back to Vince. He said that most people who voted for Brexit did so for legitimate reasons, but that racism was a factor.