
The Windrush scandal has achieved the rare feat of uniting the Labour Party and the Daily Mail in outrage. Indeed, regardless of their stance on immigration, seemingly all now agree that the Home Office’s harassment of long-standing residents was shameful.
There is more than a degree of hypocrisy to the right’s criticism of the government. Few objected when, as home secretary in 2014, Theresa May introduced the “hostile environment” policy that led to the Windrush crisis (only 18 MPs, including Diane Abbott, Jeremy Corbyn, David Lammy and John McDonnell, voted against the immigration bill).