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Yvette Cooper tore into the Home Secretary for failing to respond to warnings about the Windrush scandal.

The chair of the Home Affairs committee demanded to know when Ms Rudd first knew of the problems and why measures weren't taken sooner.

Referring to reports of the high bars set by the Home Office for people struggling to prove their right to be in the UK, she asked Ms Rudd: "Do you have four different pieces of proof as to where you were living in 1989?"

And she raised the case of Trevor Johnson, who arrived in the UK with his parents in 1971, but was wrongly told he was in the UK illegally in 2014 because he did not have enough proof for the years 1989 - 90 1994-95 and 1997- 98.

Trevor, a widowed single parent looking after two teenage daughters, had his benefits cut off and was forced to live off food banks.

Ms Cooper also hit out at the Home Secretary over the issue of the Tories toxic target to bring net migration below 100,000 which critics say has fuelled the saga.

Ms Rudd replied: "I don't think that's got anything to do with it.

"It's wrong to think the net migration target is the problem here. The problem here is that people were not properly document

ed."

Asked whether she had asked Theresa May to remove the target, Ms Rudd said: "I have not discussed that with the Prime Minister."

Pressed again on the issue, she said: "I have private conversations with the Prime Minister which will stay private."

On the question of whether anybody has been deported as a result of the scandal, Home Secretary Amber Rudd said: "The answer to that is not as far as we can see at the moment."

She told the Commons Home Affairs committee 7,000 out of 8,000 records dating back to 2002 had been checked so far, with no cases of wrongful removal discovered to date.

The checking process will be subject to independent assurance once it has been concluded, she added.

MPs also asked the Home Secretary about so-called removal targets which a witness from the ISU, border staff union, told the committee were in place.

Both Amber Rudd and Glynn Williams, Director General responsible for Border, Immigration and Citizenship denied any knowledge of such targets.

The Immigration Service Union’s Lucy Moreton told MPs there were targets.

She later told Sky News: “Net Removal targets certainly do exist, and I’m somewhat bemused as to why the Home Secretary would say they do not exist.”

She claimed the number was 8,337.

Home Office official Glynn Williams, Director General responsible for Border, Immigration and Citizenship, said about 12,000 illegals were removed each year - but denied there were targets.

Ms Rudd said she had become aware of problems that were affecting individuals from press coverage and MPs' correspondence "over the past few months".

She added: "I became aware that there was a potential issue. I bitterly, deeply regret that I didn't see it as more than individual cases that had gone wrong that needed addressing.

"I didn't see it as a systemic issue until very recently."

(Image: PA)

The top Tory, who has faced repeated calls to quit over the fiasco, is being grilled by the Commons Home Affairs Committee.

Those who have been living legally in the UK for decades have lost jobs, been denied NHS treatment, benefits and pensions, had their driving licences withdrawn and been warned they face deportation.

A compensation scheme will be introduced within weeks, Ms Rudd said.

Ms Rudd has apologised for blunders which triggered heartbreaking confusion for hundreds of Caribbean migrants wrongly threatened with deportation.

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She has promised compensation for those who suffered, as well as waiving fees and language tests for anyone from the Windrush generation who wants to apply for UK citizenship.

Ms Rudd admitted moves to curb illegal immigration had triggered “unintended and sometimes devastating” consequences for Windrush migrants who came legally between 1948 and 1973.