Try as they might to avoid it, the Windrush gagging order scandal will continue to haunt the Tories

The Conservatives have already lost one home secretary because of this scandal. Now Javid will have to face the consequences of continuing the prime minister’s policy while pretending to soften it

The latest revelation that Windrush scandal victims are being forced to sign gagging orders in exchange for less delayed compensation payments is truly shocking. But it is not surprising.

It fits entirely with this government’s whole approach to the scandal. There is only one purpose to the gagging orders, which is to cover up the government’s own appalling mistreatment of the Windrush victims. It is manipulative of vulnerable people who have already been harshly mistreated. It is devious and cowardly.

On 16 July 2018, during a response to a Home Office oral question on the Windrush compensation scheme, the home secretary, Sajid Javid, said: “No one will be asked to sign any kind of non-disclosure agreement or anything like that”. He was very clear in his use of language, but the so-called “confidentiality clauses” Windrush victims are being asked to sign, described in a letter to the Home Affairs Select Committee, sound very much “like”, if not exactly the same as a non-disclosure agreement.

The British public will not be hoodwinked by semantics. There is a reason parliament, like a court, places such importance on telling the truth. Differences of opinion are just that, however strongly held. But if government ministers mislead, there is no possibility of the legislature holding the executive to account. And, lest we forget, the Tories have already lost one Home Secretary because of this scandal.

The Windrush victims have already suffered enough. People, our own citizens, have been illegally deported or held in detention. Some have been refused re-entry into this country after going abroad. Others may have been bullied into “voluntary removal” under threat of deportation. People lost jobs and homes, and had bank accounts and driver’s licences denied or frozen. Lives have been destroyed and families split apart.

The previous home secretary Amber Rudd claims her denial of the existence of deportation targets was simply an error. Given the Home Office’s fixation with deportations under her tenure, this is simply not credible. This was a home secretary who had written to the prime minister boasting about the greater number of deportations she was making. Officials were given bonuses for the number of deportations.

Of course, the ultimate source of this scandal remains the prime minister herself. It was Theresa May who piloted the 2014 Immigration Act through parliament, aided and abetted by the LibDems in coalition. The act introduced the presumption of guilt in immigration cases as well as the “hostile environment”. She brutally summed up her own policy as “deport first, appeal later”.

Now Javid will have to face the consequences of continuing the same policy while pretending to either soften or end it. This scandal over gagging orders follows his own refusal to make interim hardship payments to the Windrush victims. He still doesn’t know (or will not say) how many victims there are.

In reality, the number of victims will continue to grow while the 2014 Immigration Act and the hostile environment remain in place. Labour in government will end both.

We will stop treating our own citizens as if they have no legal right to be here. We will end the presumption of guilt, and stop turning public servants into border guards. We will increase the number of real border guards to catch the people traffickers and smugglers. Above all, we will treat people with humanity and fairness in our immigration system.

This is not the approach of this government. Javid has allowed these gagging orders to be issued on his watch. Much like his predecessor, he now has serious questions of his own to answer.

Diane Abbott is the shadow home secretary​ and Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington