Former Conservative home secretary Amber Rudd has warned that Yvette Cooper risks repeating the mistakes of the ‘hostile environment’ policy that led to the Windrush scandal. Rudd urged her successor not to rush the asylum response, as Cooper rolls out new measures to address public anger over irregular migration.
Cooper announced a temporary ban on refugees bringing family members to the UK until spring 2026, a new asylum appeals process using panels of trained members of the public, and the possibility of housing asylum seekers in warehouses. These moves follow five weeks of relative government silence on the issue, even as Reform UK highlighted record small-boat crossings.
Rudd, who resigned after the Windrush scandal, said: “All of this ‘Speed up, speed up, Home Office’ – that is what leads to Windrush-type consequences. If you go too fast, that is when you make mistakes.” The Windrush scandal saw thousands wrongly classified as illegal migrants, losing jobs, benefits, and homes, with some wrongly deported.
Experts and former government advisers liken the recent policies to the clampdown overseen by Theresa May. The Home Office has also launched a campaign to contact 130,000 students and families, warning them to leave if they have no legal right to remain, and intensified workplace raids—steps compared to the controversial ‘go home’ vans of 2013.
Rudd supported Cooper’s aim to reduce asylum numbers, noting the scale of people-trafficking has grown massively since her tenure. However, a former Home Office adviser said: “We are not returning to a hostile environment; we never left it. It is the definition of madness – doing the same thing and expecting a different result.”
