Windrush report: ‘Historic laws were designed to cut number of non-white people’

A long-awaited report into the causes of the Windrush scandal has concluded that historic immigration laws were designed to reduce the proportion of non-white people living in the UK.

Between 1950-1981, “every single piece of immigration or citizenship legislation was designed at least in part to reduce the number of people with black or brown skin who were permitted to live and work in the UK”, the report said.

The Home Office previously refused to publish the Historical Roots Of The Windrush Scandal report after a request under the Freedom of Information Act.

Earlier this month, a First-Tier Tribunal judgment said the department must disclose the report to the requester, but Labour decided to go further and publish the report on the Government website.

The report also concluded that the scandal had been caused by a “failure to recognise that changes in immigration and citizenship law in Britain since 1948 had affected black people in the UK differently.

“As a result, the experiences of Britain’s black communities of the Home Office, of the law, and of life in the UK have been fundamentally different from those of white communities”.

“The work of various governmental bodies in combatting discrimination in the UK was separate from the task given to the Home Office to reduce immigration,” the report continued.

“This led to a paradoxical situation in which immigration policy assumed that too many immigrants from a minority ethnic background were bad for society, but race relations policy promoted the idea of racial equality.”

The Windrush scandal – which campaigners have since said should be known as the Home Office scandal – erupted in 2018 when British citizens were wrongly detained, deported or threatened with deportation despite having the right to live in Britain.

Many lost homes and jobs and were denied access to healthcare and benefits.

When the scandal was uncovered, the Conservative government promised to right the wrongs of what had happened but the compensation scheme has been repeatedly criticised for the speed at which claims are being processed and payments made.

During this year’s election campaign, Labour pledged to offer “a fundamental reset moment for the Windrush generation, with respect and dignity at its very core”.

Party leader Sir Keir Starmer said in June that if elected he would ensure “urgent reform” of the compensation scheme to make it more efficient, a restoration of the Windrush Unit to the Home Office, and a Windrush commissioner “to be the voice of families affected”.

Responding to the report, Seema Malhotra, minister for migration and citizenship, said it was a “substantial piece of work that should support discussion on an important part of British history”.

In a letter to Windrush stakeholders, she continued: “Publishing this report is a small step, but it is a signal of our intention to be more transparent and to ensure victims get the respect and support they deserve from their government.

“This government’s message to the Windrush generation could not be clearer: we are grateful to you, and we will do right by you.”

Separate figures published by the Home Office on Thursday show that of the 868 Windrush compensation scheme claims that were still being processed at the end of August, 135 (16%) had been in the system for at least 12 months.

This proportion is broadly unchanged on the previous few months, but is up from 12% in October 2023.

The figure had previously peaked at 38% in June 2022.

Some 63 claims (7% of the total) had been in the system for more than 18 months, down from 118 a year earlier.

A total of 9,000 claims had been made by the end of August 2024.

Nearly £96 million has now been paid out under the scheme, covering 2,703 claims – an average of around £35,500 per claim.