- Gavin Williamson, the defence secretary, has suffered the indignity of having a live TV interview terminated because he repeatedly refused to answer a question. (See 3.27pm.)
- The Home Office has established contact with three people out of more than 60 who may have been wrongly removed from the UK as a result of the Windrush scandal. As the Press Association reports, officials have trawled through around 8,000 records dating back to 2002 following fears that residents who had been in the country lawfully for decades may have been forced to leave. It emerged earlier this month that 63 cases had been earmarked for detailed investigation. The number comprises Caribbean individuals who are aged over 45, have been removed from the UK, and may have entered the country before 1973 – meaning they might have been protected by the 1971 Immigration Act. Thirty-two of the cases are categorised as foreign national offenders, while 31 were people subject to “administrative” removals. In a letter to Home Affairs committee chair Yvette Cooper published today on the committee’s website, Sajid Javid, the home secretary, said those in the latter group are being “proactively contacted” through a specialist Windrush taskforce, “where we have contact details”. He added:
In response Cooper said:
But Cooper said she welcomed Javid’s declaration in the latter that all cases where highly-skilled immigrants were facing deportation because of potentially minor errors in their tax returns [under paragraph 322(5) of the Immigration Act] have been suspended pending a review.
- The EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation, has urged the government to drop its “maximum facilitation” (or “max fac”) plans for post-Brexit customs. This is the option favoured by cabinet Brexiters like Boris Johnson and Michael Gove. In a statement the EEF’s chief executive Stephen Phipson said:
Much of the debate on max fac is misguided. No one doubts the technology exists: it is in place in many locations around the world. The issue is whether it is good enough to provide a frictionless border and can be implemented quickly enough to be ready for December 2020. I think that the answer to this is an overwhelming no….
