One of Theresa May’s most loyal allies dismissed pleas from the Windrush generation for help to confirm citizenship status as far back as 2011, a letter seen by the Guardian shows.



Damian Green, former deputy to the prime minister and an immigration minister during May’s first two years running the Home Office, suggested the blame could have lain with the migrants themselves for not sorting out their settled status earlier.

The letter, sent to the Labour MP David Lammy, is the earliest evidence yet of the Conservative immigration policy that was to follow – which was defined by May two years later as the “hostile environment” strategy.



The government is struggling to contain the growing pressure on both May and the home secretary, Amber Rudd. The home secretary is likely to face angry questions in parliament on Wednesday from the home affairs select committee.

The involvement of Green, whom May made her first secretary when she took over at No 10, draws the scandal ever closer to the prime minister despite the government’s repeated attempts to lay the blame elsewhere.

At prime minister’s questions, Lammy revealed the plight of one constituent, William O’Grady, who left Jamaica as a child in 1959 and then lived and worked in the UK for 40 years. He was unable to work for seven years, however, because he did not have the “right” documentation, despite having had a national insurance number since 1971. Then he found he could not claim benefits to help with living costs, including his rent.

Lammy, the MP for Tottenham, who has championed the cause of Windrush citizens, said his pleas had fallen on deaf ears at the Home Office, the UK Border Agency and Passport Office. They had also rejected a suggestion that UK citizenship fees could be waived, which the home secretary has done for all those affected by the immigration scandal.

In his letter, Green suggested that O’Grady should have acquired settled status before 1971, when the law changed. “Having settled status would mean that he would be able to live and work in the UK without restriction,” he said. It was the constituent’s responsibility to provide evidence that he had been in the UK before that time, and had stayed continuously.

A separate letter from the UK Border Agency to Lammy apologised for failing to reply to earlier correspondence and told him the fee for a single application for British citizenship had since risen to £836. It suggested O’Grady should acquire a “no time limit” stamp on his passport to enable him to work. However, the Passport Agency held on to O’Grady’s passport and birth certificate for more than a year, then claimed that he had lost his claim to British citizenship when Jamaica gained independence in 1962.

In fact, all those people who went to Britain from Commonwealth countries from 1948 to 1971 can gain citizenship.

Lammy demanded the prime minister personally apologise to O’Grady. He said his constituent should receive significant compensation for the years when he was out of work and unable to access benefits, and for the trauma he had been put through. He also called for O’Grady’s citizenship and passport to be granted immediately.



Lammy said: “William lived here since he was a very young child and worked here for 40 years. The government were happy to take his taxes for four decades – but then treat him in this utterly shameful manner without even a second thought.

“He was a citizen when he came here so why was he treated like an illegal immigrant? Modern Britain was built on the backs of William and the rest of the Windrush generation and it is a disgrace that he was stripped of his rights and treated in this way.

“How many more Windrush cases have successive Home Office ministers dismissed? How many other innocent people have been stripped of their right to work, stripped of their right to access benefits and healthcare or imprisoned in their own country? I asked the home secretary over a week ago and she still hasn’t told me. The people of this country have a right to know.”

May told the Commons: “Obviously, individual cases will have different circumstances but the home secretary will be setting out the compensation scheme and she will be doing that shortly.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “As the home secretary announced, members of the Windrush generation who arrived in the UK before 1973 and have stayed to build a life here will be eligible for free citizenship.



“The offer, which will be available to people from Commonwealth countries, not just Caribbean nationals, will extend to individuals who have no current documentation, those who already have leave to remain and want to advance their status and children of the Windrush generation.”