U-turn on Windrush reform branded a slap in the face’

Home secretary Suella Braverman has decided to ditch a number of review recommendations (Reuters)

- PATRICK DALY

The home secretary's decision to U-turn on reforms designed to prevent another Windrush scandal has been branded a "slap in the face".

Suella Braverman has decided to row back on accepted recommendations made following a scathing review into how the Windrush scandal unfolded at the Home Office. She has dropped a commitment to establish a migrants' commissioner a decision that has been criticised by the head of the Windrush inquiry.

The cabinet minister has also chosen not to increase the powers of the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI) or to hold reconciliation events with the Windrush community. One of the key organisers behind this year's 75thanniversary celebrations of the Windrush generation's arrival in Britain was among those to criticise the announcement.

Patrick Vernon, convenor of the Windrush 75 network, said: "For the home secretary to be backsliding on government commitments to set right the injustices of the Windrush scandal - particularly in this anniversary year - is a slap in the face for those communities. Suella Braverman should make a clear commitment to right the wrongs of the Windrush scandal." Senior Labour MP David Lammy said those people from black communities who were "detained and deported" during the Windrush scandal were being "once again spat on" following the Home Secretary's decision. Our country's brave Windrush victims denied justice yet again," the shadow foreign secretary tweeted.

David Lammy: the move 'spits on' those affected (EPA)

The scandal erupted in 2018 when British citizens, mostly from the Caribbean, were wrongly detained, deported or threatened with deportation, despite having the right to live in Britain.