Tory minister claims deporting people to Jamaica despite them living in UK since childhood is not racist

Campaigners call for removals to be delayed until after publication of Windrush report

Justice secretary Robert Buckland has rejected accusations of institutional racism over government plans to deport up to 50 Jamaican nationals convicted of offences in the UK.

Some of those slated for removal have lived in the UK since they were children and regard their deportation as a repeat of the Windrush scandal which saw people who had made their lives in Britain treated as foreigners.

There are calls for the planned flight to be delayed until after the publication of a Windrush Lessons Learned report, which will urge ministers to consider ending the practice of deporting people who arrived in the UK as children.

One of those detained over the last fortnight ahead of the planned removal flight on 11 February is 30-year-old Reshawn Davis, who has been in the UK since the age of 11 and has a British wife and child.

He is being removed from the country on the basis that he was convicted for robbery 10 years ago under the now-unlawful “joint enterprise” rule – for which he spent two months in prison.

But Mr Buckland insisted that the authorities had a “duty” to remove foreign national offenders from the country.

Responding to Labour MP David Lammy’s charge that the planned deportations amounted to “institutional racism”, the justice secretary told The Andrew Marr Show: “I think that is unfair.

“What we are looking at is a cohort of foreign national offenders. Whatever their ethnicity and background, we have to take action. The British public would expect no less.”

The government has said that the people due for removal to Jamaica include offenders found guilty of manslaughter, rape and drug-dealing.

“It’s part of the programme of the deportation of foreign national offenders, people who’ve committed criminal offences,” he said.

“We’ve always said that there’s a distinction to be drawn between people who have made their lives here, who have been part of our community, who are making that incredible contribution to British society, and people who commit offences.

Reshawn Davis has been in the UK since the age of 11 (Tonique Kerr)

“And I think it’s right to say that when it comes to the number of foreign national offenders in the prisons that I’m responsible for, we have not just a choice but a duty to make sure that we have a prison system that has the capacity to deal with offenders here. The removal of foreign national offenders is something that I think the public support.”

Asked why the deportation flight was not being delayed until after the publication of the Windrush report, Mr Buckland said: “I think we have to draw a distinction between people who’ve committed criminal offences and those who haven’t. That is a reasonable approach to take, and that’s why we’re doing what we’re doing.

“I think that what we’re doing is proportionate and measured. It is in line with our need and our stated policy to deal efficiently with foreign national offenders, and that means foreign national offenders of various nationalities. It’s not about discriminating against a particular group, this is about dealing with the entire cohort.”