UK: Home secretary Amber Rudd quits, says she inadvertently misled MPs about deportation targets
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott alleged that Prime Minister Theresa May was the ‘architect of this crisis’.
The United Kingdom’s Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, Amber Rudd, resigned on Sunday saying she had inadvertently misled fellow legislators about targets for removing undocumented immigrants, BBC reported. Rudd is set to issue a statement at the House of Commons, the lower house of Parliament, on Monday.
In a letter to Prime Minister Theresa May in 2017, Rudd wrote of her intention to increase deportations by 10%. This was at odds with her recent statements denying that she knew about the targets. The Guardian published Rudd’s letter.
Rudd told May in her resignation letter that she had “become aware of information provided to my office which makes mention of targets”. The prime minister said that she believed Rudd had given her evidence “in good faith”, but understood why she had decided to step down.
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott, who had been calling for Rudd’s resignation, said she had “done the right thing”. The Labour Party politician called May the “architect of this crisis”, and asked her to explain to Parliament “whether she knew that Rudd was misleading Parliament and the public last week”.
May is expected to announce Rudd’s replacement on Monday. Communities minister Sajid Javid, who recently spoke out strongly over the home ministry’s misstep, and David Lidington, who is effectively the prime minister’s deputy, are the two front-runners, The Guardian reported.
A number of high-profile resignations hamstrung the May government late last year. Damian Green, who was the first secretary of state, was sacked in December for making misleading statements regarding what he knew about the claims of pornography found on his office computer in 2008. British Cabinet minister Priti Patel resigned as the international development secretary the month before after reports said that she held a series of undisclosed meetings in Israel. Michael Fallon too resigned as the defence secretary the week before Patel amid sexual harassment allegations against him.