Labour is seeking to use the same arcane parliamentary procedure it deployed to force the government to hand over its Brexit impact assessments to allow MPs to scrutinise the decision-making process over how the Windrush generation was treated.

In a move that could cause extreme discomfort for ministers, Labour will use a so-called humble address motion on Wednesday to ask for all papers, correspondence and advice on Windrush between ministers, senior officials and advisors from May 2010 until now.

This would be handed to the Commons home affairs committee and would include information about any detentions or deportations, the setting of deportation targets, and how the policies were seen as affecting people’s lives.

If successful, the tactic could undermine the government’s attempts to insulate Theresa May from the crisis over how some citizens of Caribbean origin who arrived in the UK from the 1950s onwards were wrongly targeted amid the “hostile environment” immigration policy, which placed the onus on individuals to actively prove their status.

While May has apologised for the treatment of Windrush citizens, the government has sought to portray the resignation on Sunday of Amber Rudd as home secretary as a separate matter, prompted only by her lack of knowledge about removals targets.

Late last year Labour used a humble address to force a vote that obliged the government to allow MPs to see what had been described as 58 papers detailing the impact of Brexit on sections of the economy – even those these turned ou`t to be less thorough than billed.

On Wednesday, Labour will submit an opposition day motion in the Commons to ask that a “humble address be presented to Her Majesty” seeking the Windrush documents be passed to the home affairs committee.

This is a tactic that is difficult for the government to counter. Ministers have opted in recent months to try to take no part in votes on opposition day debates, rather than participate and risk defeat.

If the government does lose the vote, precedent from the Brexit example is that the Speaker, John Bercow, has ruled that humble address motions are binding.

Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary – who will lead the debate, said: “With the resignation of Amber Rudd, Theresa May has lost her human shield and must now fully account for the policies she created and drove through from the Home Office into Downing Street.

“The Windrush scandal has exposed something rotten at the heart of government. We need to know what has led to this situation.”