A group of more than 80 MPs has referred the Home Office to the equalities watchdog, requesting an investigation into whether its “deeply discriminatory” hostile environment immigration policies represent institutional racism.

The MPs argue that the Home Office is acting unlawfully by routinely discriminating against British citizens on the basis of their race, and have called on the Equality and Human Rights Commission to investigate.

In a letter to the head of the EHRC, the group says the introduction and operation of the hostile environment shows “beyond all doubt” that the government “does not take its stated commitment to race equality seriously”.

David Lammy, who wrote the letter in his position as chair of the all-party parliamentary group on race and community, said: “The gross mishandling and abuse of the Windrush generation by the Home Office raises serious questions over whether British citizens were discriminated against on the basis of their race and ethnicity, in breach of equalities legislation.

“More than a year after I first raised this in parliament, nothing has changed. Justice must mean not only due compensation and reparation, but changes to the institution and immigration laws that created this crisis. This is why we are calling on the EHRC to investigate the Home Office and, in particular, the hostile environment legislation, which appears to have led to discriminatory treatment against ethnic minority British citizens.”

The letter, which has been signed by 87 MPs from six parties, says: “Many of the most grievous abuses suffered by the Windrush generation occurred as a direct result of the government’s ‘hostile environment’ immigration policy.”

The letter urges the watchdog to rule on whether the Home Office is discriminating against Windrush generation and all minority ethnic Britons, and to assess whether the Home Office has “wilfully” disregarded its public sector equality duty.

The MPs highlight a potential area of concern as the decision to transfer immigration control functions to private citizens and non-immigration officials such as landlords, bank staff, NHS workers and employers, questioning whether this move, without sufficient training, has resulted in discrimination against minority ethnic Britons because of their race.

They note that a key hostile environment policy – the right to rent legislation, which requires landlords to check potential tenants’ immigration status – has already been found by the high court to cause racial discrimination.

“The Home Office has not taken action to prevent race being used as a proxy for suspect immigration status by the people and agencies tasked with implementing the ‘hostile environment’, and, therefore, black Britons are routinely being discriminated against as they exercise their civil rights,” the letter says. “Clearly, this policy is deeply discriminatory when it is black Britons who are being treated in this way, while white Britons are not.”

MPs have asked the EHRC to investigate whether the implementation of hostile environment policies constitutes institutional racism, defined by the Macpherson report as “the collective failure of an organisation to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour … It can be detected in processes, attitudes and behaviour which amount to discrimination through unwitting prejudice … and racist stereotyping which disadvantage minority ethnic people.”

A Home Office spokesperson said the Home Office had commissioned a “lessons learned” review into what led up to the Windrush scandal.

“The home secretary and the immigration minister are committed to righting the wrongs experienced by the Windrush generation and the recently launched compensation scheme is a crucial step in delivering on that commitment. The Windrush generation have given so much to this country and we will ensure nothing like this ever happens again,” the spokesperson said.

