Exclusive: denials she was aware of deportation targets at odds with January 2017 letter now published in full

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The private letter from Amber Rudd to Downing Street in which she sets an “ambitious but deliverable” target for an increase in the enforced deportation of immigrants has been published by the Guardian in full for the first time.



The letter, signed by the home secretary in January last year, states that she is refocusing work within her department to achieve the “aim of increasing the number of enforced removals by more than 10% over the next few years”.

Rudd has claimed she did not set, see or approve any targets for removals. The former immigration minister Brandon Lewis suggested on Sunday this proposed increase was an ambition rather than a target.

Amber Rudd faces new pressure over immigration targets Read more

But Home Office sources have told the Guardian that it is “shame-faced nonsense” to claim the department had not been set specific targets in this area, or that these have not been regularly discussed at the highest levels.

The latest furore was sparked on Friday when the Guardian published details from a separate confidential memo that was sent to Rudd in June last year.

Prepared by Hugh Ind, the director general of Immigration Enforcement in the Home Office, it picked up on the new policy outlined by Rudd in her letter to Theresa May.

Amber Rudd boasted of harsher immigration strategy, leak reveals Read more

The document stated that his agency had “set a target of achieving 12,800 enforced returns in 2017/18 … this will move us along the path towards the 10% increased performance on enforced returns which we promised the Home Secretary earlier this year”.

While Rudd has denied seeing the six-page briefing note, the Guardian can now reveal that it was also sent to at least eight of the Home Office’s most senior officials, including:

• Marc Owen, senior director of national and international operations in Immigration Enforcement.

• Mark Thomson, the director general of the Passport Office.

• Tony Eastaugh, UK director of operations at Immigration Enforcement.

• Gareth Hills, director of performance and risk at the Home Office.

• Stephen Kershaw, a senior director in Immigration Enforcement.

• Andrew Wren, director of performance, assurance and governance at the Home Office.

Timeline Amber Rudd's apologies Show Hide The home secretary has issued five apologies in the last week – four of them over her department's handling of the Windrush crisis and immigration targets. Rudd delivered an unprecedented apology to parliament and acknowledged that her department had “lost sight of individuals” and become “too concerned with policy”. Rudd apologised for failing to grasp the scale of the problem. She told the home affairs select committee: “I bitterly, deeply regret that I didn’t see it as more than individual cases gone wrong that needed addressing. I didn’t see it as a systemic issue until very recently.” On Thursday morning, Rudd was forced to admit officials did have targets for removals, having previously denied their existence. “The immigration arm of the Home Office has been using local targets for internal performance management. These were not published targets against which performance was assessed, but if they were used inappropriately then I am clear that this will have to change." On Thursday afternoon, Rudd was forced to issue a hasty clarification after appearing to leave the door open to the UK staying in a customs union with the EU. “I should have been clearer – of course when we leave the EU we will be leaving the customs union." In a series of late-night tweets, Rudd apologised for not being aware of documents, leaked to the Guardian, which set out immigration removal targets.

‘I wasn’t aware of specific removal targets. I accept I should have been and I’m sorry that I wasn’t. I didn’t see the leaked document, although it was copied to my office as many documents are."

The disclosure will heap further pressure on Rudd, who has said she will address MPs on Monday to answer the “legitimate questions” that have been raised over the past week.



On Friday night, nine hours after the Guardian first told the Home Office about the leaked memo, Rudd tweeted: “I wasn’t aware of removal targets. I accept I should have been and I am sorry that I wasn’t.”



The response appears at odds with the letter she sent to the prime minister in January last year.

But it also suggests that none of the other senior officials and special advisers copied into the subsequent briefing note ever discussed with her the targets which the Immigration Enforcement agency was attempting to reach on her instruction.

Home Office sources have told the Guardian that Immigration Enforcement has been working all year to reach the target of 12,800 enforced returns in 2017-18.

Contact the Guardian securely Read more

They have been bracing themselves to acknowledge to ministers that the agency has failed to do so. To meet the goal, it needed to deport 250 people a week, but it has only been able to remove about 225 a week.

“At the Home Office we work in a target culture,” said a source. “The civil service is completely target based. That’s all we do. It is shame-faced nonsense for Amber Rudd to say otherwise.”