British Prime Minister Theresa May has sought to draw a distinction between the resignation of former Home Secretary Amber Rudd from her post on Sunday and the so-called "hostile environment" policy pursued at the Home Office when Mrs. May held the portfolio.
Mrs May has emphasized that in her resignation letter, Mrs Rudd explained the reason as being her lack of awareness over Home Office quotas to met for deportations from Britain and that she had unintentionally misled Parliamentarians when questioned on the subject.
READ: Amber Rudd's Resignation Letter > https://t.co/VrC1GCz60x pic.twitter.com/sX2zKPJgur
— Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) April 29, 2018
The damage to the government however has added to the already existent tensions within the cabinet over what form Brexit should take and the resignation of Rudd deprives the Prime Minister of one of the government's most prominent pro-European voices.
Many in the British media and online have suggested the resignation is indicative of a government on the verge of collapsing.
You can smell the undoubted odour of a government decomposing. Amber Rudd’s forced resignation, increasingly bitter divisions over its Brexit policies & Lycamobile, a major donor to the Tory party, being prosecuted for a tax scam, all point to a government in terminal disarray.
— John McDonnell MP (@johnmcdonnellMP) April 29, 2018
Sky Data Poll; Who is most to blame for the Windrush Scandal:
— Matt Thomas (@Trickyjabs) April 30, 2018
Amber Rudd: 4% — (She resigned)
Theresa May 31% — (So she really should resign)
Lot of reactions from lobby journos on here to Amber Rudd resigning have been premised on it being a “real shame for her career”, and a “challenge for Theresa May’s government to overcome”. Quite pathetic. Has anyone even tried to implicate May given she knew Rudd lied last week
— Matt Zarb-Cousin (@mattzarb) April 30, 2018
So to clarify, Amber Rudd was running out of illegal immigrants to kick out of the UK in order to meet her quotas, she then had a light bulb moment and thought 🤔 let’s go after Legal POC residents, lock em up in detention centres, no one will notice and Theresa May agreed.
— Natalie Rowe (@RealNatalieRowe) April 30, 2018
The Windrush scandal, which has seen residents born in the United Kingdom to Caribbean post-war immigrants to Britain threatened with deportation for allegedly not having a proper immigration status.
Under British law until the early 1970s, citizens of Commonwealth countries, former British colonies, were entitled to remain in Britain indefinitely without acquiring formal citizenship. While immigration procedures remain relatively easier for citizens of commonwealth countries today, the laws have long since been tightened.
