Cooper Risks Windrush-Style Scandal by Rushing Asylum Row Response, Warns Rudd

Yvette Cooper is risking another Windrush-style scandal by repeating the mistakes the Conservatives made in implementing a hostile environment policy for migrants, a former Tory home secretary has said.

- Kiran Stacey

Amber Rudd, who was Conservative home secretary under Theresa May, urged her successor not to rush her response to the asylum controversy, as Cooper rolls out a series of policies to quell public anger over irregular migration.

Her warning came after a hectic 48 hours during which the home secretary announced a temporary ban on refugees bringing family members to the UK, a new asylum appeals process and the possibility of housing asylum seekers in warehouses.

This followed five weeks during which the government was largely quiet on the issue, even as Reform held a series of press conferences highlighting record numbers of small boat crossings this year.

"All of this 'speed up, speed up, Home Office' - that is what leads to Windrush-type consequences," Rudd said. "If you go too fast, that is when you make mistakes."

Rudd resigned in the wake of the Windrush scandal, which involved thousands of people being wrongly classified as illegal migrants, leading some to lose their jobs, benefits and even homes. A smaller number were arrested, detained and wrongly deported to countries they had left decades earlier.

Rudd stepped down after the Guardian revealed she had set herself targets for deporting irregular migrants despite having told MPs she had not done so. Many people at the time blamed the Home Office's attempts to create what May, as home secretary, had called "a really hostile environment for illegal migrants".

Experts and former government advisers have likened some of the government's moves in recent days to the clampdown May oversaw when she ran the Home Office.

On Monday Cooper told the Commons she would not let those who have refugee status bring their family into the UK until spring 2026, by which time she will have