London: Britain's interior minister Amber Rudd resigned on Sunday over an illegal immigration policy controversy, in a bitter blow to Prime Minister Theresa May days before local elections.

Rudd stood down amid claims she mislead lawmakers on whether her department held targets for removing illegal immigrants in Britain.

"The prime minister has tonight accepted the resignation of the home secretary," said a spokesman for May's office.

Rudd telephoned May to inform her of the decision following days of intensifying pressure over the immigration issue and increasing calls for her to quit.

That had followed weeks of scrutiny of her handling of another Home Office scandal: the targeting of the so-called Windrush generation.

Commonwealth citizens primarily from the Caribbean who came to Britain in the post-World War II decades had been wrongly threatened with deportation, provoking an outcry when it emerged earlier this month.

Their erroneous targeting stemmed from a "hostile environment" immigration policy pioneered by May when she was interior minister between 2010 and 2016, and then continued by Rudd.

The opposition Labour Party had accused Rudd of incompetence and being a "human shield" for May.

"This was inevitable, the only surprise is that it took so long," said shadow interior minister Diane Abbott following Rudd's resignation.

"The architect of this crisis, Theresa May, must now step forward to give a full and honest account of how this inexcusable situation happened on her watch."

Rudd's decision to step down will come as a severe setback for the Conservative leader, who publicly declared her "full confidence" in Rudd as recently as Friday and faces potentially bruising local council elections across England on Thursday.

May could see the Tories wiped out in London, where several once-safe Conservative councils could flip to Labour.

As the Windrush scandal intensified, Rudd told a parliamentary committee the Home Office did not keep targets for the number of illegal immigrants removed from Britain.

While she maintained she was unaware of such measures, there was mounting evidence that targets did exist and were known about within her department, making her position increasingly untenable.

Rudd had been due to make another appearance before parliament on Monday, but instead opted to resign late Sunday.

The MP for Hastings on England's south coast, who had led the Home Office since 2016, was seen as a moderate on the European Union and a balancing force in a cabinet made up of several big-name pro-Brexit figures, such as Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Environment Secretary Michael Gove.

Both men were quick to praise her on social media following news of the resignation.

"Really sad to lose @AmberRuddHR from Cabinet. A fine colleague who did a great job during last year's terrorist attacks and cares deeply about the people she serves," Johnson tweeted.

Gove said he was "so sad" about her departure, adding on Twitter "she was a huge asset... I hope Amber will be back soon -- we need her."

One of the more heartfelt reactions came from George Osborne, long-time finance minister under former Prime Minister David Cameron.

He wrote: "The Government just got a bit less human."</s>The resignation of Home Secretary Amber Rudd came after documents leaked in the British press showed that she set a target to increase the number of deportations by 10 per cent, despite her denials

One of Britains most senior cabinet ministers has resigned after growing pressure over her handling of targets to deport illegal immigrants. The resignation of Home Secretary Amber Rudd came after documents leaked in the British press showed that she set a target to increase the number of deportations by 10 per cent, despite her denials.

Rudd has been forced to quit after weeks of criticism of the British government's treatment of long-term migrants from the Caribbean, known as the Windrush generation. They were threatened with deportation and some were even denied medical treatment because they didn't have documents to prove that they had been living in the UK for decades.

But ironically, and perhaps unfairly, for Rudd, leaked documents also indicate that the policy of forced removal of illegal immigrants was aimed at recent arrivals, mainly from India and Pakistan, and not for the Windrush generation, though some were affected by it.

The letter she wrote to Prime Minister Theresa May in January last year, which was published in the Guardian on Sunday, mentioned her forthcoming visit to Pakistan to finalise an agreement on biometric returns which would make it easier to deport illegal immigrants to that country. And she did visit Pakistan three months later. A leading think tank, Migration Watch, has estimated that there are about 200,000 Pakistanis living illegally in the UK.

There are no such estimates available for illegal immigrants from India but another recent study by Oxford University's The Migration Observatory has said that 6,580 Indian were deported in 2016, the top country of enforced removals or voluntary departures from Britain. Pakistan, with 3,857, stood at second place. Both countries together made it 27 per cent of such removals. No wonder illegal immigration from these two countries is a major cause for concern in Britain.

In January, India's Minister of State for Home Affairs, Kiren Rijiju, signed an agreement with Britain on the swift return of Indian illegal immigrants from the UK, an issue that has been repeatedly raised by British government officials to their Indian counterparts.

Rudd has only followed her predecessor and the current Prime Minister May's policy of creating a "hostile environment for illegal immigrants". Her departure now puts May in the firing line because the opposition in Britain is unlikely to keep quiet on the issue after Rudd's resignation.

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This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever</s>Amber Rudd has resigned as home secretary after repeatedly struggling to explain her role in the unjust treatment of Windrush generation migrants.

The home secretary had faced mounting pressure over her role in setting the culture and policies that led to long-term residents of Britain from Caribbean countries being denied healthcare, pensions and benefits and in some cases being threatened with deportation.

Rudd had been due to appear before parliament on Monday to explain apparent discrepancies between her evidence to the home affairs select committee last week and a memo leaked to the Guardian that linked her to targets for removing migrants.

Challenged repeatedly about such targets by Labour MP Yvette Cooper at the home affairs select committee, Rudd had insisted: “That’s not how we operate.”

Downing Street sources said that in preparing for her Commons statement on Monday, new information had become available that convinced her she must resign. However, they continued to insist that the “ambition” for a 10% increase in removals mentioned in a separate leaked letter was not a formal target.

Rudd spoke to the prime minister by telephone on Sunday evening to tender her resignation.</s>Amber Rudd has finally bowed to massive pressure and quit saying she had to 'take responsibility' for misleading parliament over deportation targets for illegal migrants.

It is believed the Home Secretary decided to fall on her sword rather than face more humiliation amid the outcry over the Windrush immigration debacle, and telephoned Theresa May to inform her of the move late on Sunday.

The dramatic departure will be a huge blow for the Prime Minister - who is expected to annoucne her replacement shortly.

MailOnline brings you all the latest updates here:

To read this in the app, please click here.</s>The eruption of the Windrush scandal, as it has become known, has sparked a fierce national debate over immigration and the status of those who arrived from the Caribbean before 1973.

The government has now issued an apology over its treatment of the 'Windrush generation' , who are being ordered to prove they have the right to stay in Britain - even though they have been here over 50 years.

Like EU citizens who live in Britain now, Windrush migrants have permission to stay under UK rules.

But they have been told that they have to prove they are eligible to stay - despite it emerging that landing cards recording their arrival dates were destroyed in 2010, months after Theresa May became Home Secretary.

But who exactly are the Windrush generation, where did they get there name and why is the current Windrush scandal so significant for modern Britain?

What was the Windrush?

The Empire Windrush was originally a German passenger liner launched in the 19230s and named MV Monte Rosa.

She was used by Germany as a troop ship during the Second World War and The British took possession of her in as a prize of war after the conflict ended, renaming her the Empire Windrush in 1947.

The reason that the name of the Windrush became synonymous with the wave of migration that began in the late 40s and early 50s is down to the fact that the ship happened to be picking up servicemen on leave in Jamaica in 1948, just after the British Nationality Act 1948 had been passed.

This gave citizenship of the United Kingdom and Colonies statues to everyone who was a British subject who was connected with the UK or a British colony.

The ship was going to be sailing fairly empty from Jamaica’s capital Kingston, so an advert was put out asking for anyone who wanted to take advantage of cheap passage to come and work in England.

The invite was put out as England faced huge labour shortages in the wake of the war and was desperate for help to rebuild shattered infrastructure and get public services running again.

492 people took up the offer and headed to the UK. This began a wave of immigration from the Caribbean and, according to the National Archives , between 1948 and 1970 nearly half a million people left their homes in the West Indies to live in Britain.

This generation became known as the 'Windrush generation' after the ship that sparked the influx.

Even before the Windrush arrived at Tilbury dock in June 1948, intense national debate had struck up over whether to welcome the new arrivals.

According to understandingslavery.com Sam England, a former RAF officer who was onboard the ship, said: “As soon as we got to England there was great apprehension on the boat because we knew there was a national debate in Britain as to whether the boat would be allowed to dock.”'

When those first passengers disembarked the Windrush they were housed in the Clapham South deep shelter , a cavernous and dank tunnel dug as a bomb shelter in the war.

Many of them settled in nearby Brixton, as it was the site of the nearest labour exchange - as job centres were then known.

Although Caribbeans were encouraged by British Government campaigns to come over to England, and many found work with the NHS , British Rail and public transport, the new migrants were met with a wave of prejudice and sometimes outright hostility.

Back in the Caribbean these men and women had been taught that they were English too, so many were shocked at the negative treatment they received from the white population when they arrived.

Many had trouble finding accommodation and were not able to open a bank account or get a mortgage, and as such West Indians were were forced to establish their own organisations - such as the West Indian Standing Conference - which championed their interests in the community.

After the war there was a housing shortage in the UK and this led to the first clashes between the incomers and the white population. These clashes were often violent and led to riots in the 1950s in London, Birmingham and Nottingham.

The most famous of these were the 1958 Notting Hill riots, when two weeks of violence plagued the area in London. In response to the riots a 'Caribbean carnival' was set up in 1959, which is still going strong as the Notting Hill Carnival .

What is the Windrush scandal?

Anyone who arrived in the UK from a Commonwealth country before 1973 has a legal right to stay in this country, unless they left the UK for more than two years.

But new immigration rules, that came into force when now-PM Theresa May was Home Secretary, require employers, landlords and the NHS to demand evidence of legal immigration status.

Back in 2012, Mrs May said the measures were designed to create a "hostile environment" for people who were in the UK illegally.

But caught up in the bureaucratic nightmare that may have led to some Caribbean immigrants being deported "in error".

Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes has admitted that some Windrush migrants may have been deported back to the Caribbean, telling Channel 4 News: "Potentially they have been. And I’m very conscious that it’s very much in error and that’s an error I want to put right."

Home Secretary Amber Rudd has finally quit after apologising for the "appalling" treatment of the migrants amid increasing claims she misled Parliament.

Now a leading figure in Brussels has warned that the scandal is threatening a "bureaucratic nightmare" for 3million EU citizens in Britain.

Guy Verhofstadt, the European Parliament's Brexit co-ordinator, has warned that the paperwork chaos could have massive implications for EU citizens and announced he will hold an urgent meeting with Home Office officials next Tuesday.

He told MEPs: "After the Windrush scandal in Britain we want to be sure the same is not happening to our European citizens, and that there is no bureaucratic nightmare.

The government has now confirmed that 49 active cases have been flagged up so far on the first day of a new hotline set up for victims of the scandal, who face being deported, which could be just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to those affected by the scandal.

In one heartbreaking case a man who arrived in Britain in 1958 aged 15 months has told how he was barred from attending his mum's funeral in the UK .

An application Junior Green submitted to prove he had lived in the UK was rejected - and after he travelled to Jamaica to be with his dying mother last year, he says he was not allowed on the return flight to the UK.

His mother's body was repatriated to Britain, but by the time he got back her funeral had already happened.

Read more if you're affected here or call a government hotline on 0300 123 2241 (option 1).</s>UK vows to have 'humane' immigration policy as scandal grows

LONDON (AP) — Britain's interior minister was fighting for her job Sunday as uproar spread over authorities' mistreatment of long-term U.K. residents wrongly caught up in a government drive to reduce illegal immigration.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd says she will stay in her job to ensure Britain's immigration policy is "humane." But opposition politicians demanded she resign over what has become known as the Windrush scandal.

Rudd plans to make a statement Monday in the House of Commons about the scandal, which critics say reflects a hostile attitude to immigrants.

The furor has grown since the Guardian newspaper reported that some people who came to the U.K. from the Caribbean in the decades after World War II had recently been refused medical care in Britain or threatened with deportation because they could not produce paperwork proving their right to reside in the country.

Those affected belong to the "Windrush generation," named for the ship Empire Windrush, which in 1948 brought hundreds of Caribbean immigrants to Britain, which was seeking nurses, railway workers and others to help it rebuild after the devastation of World War II.

They and subsequent Caribbean migrants came from British colonies or ex-colonies and had an automatic right to settle in the U.K. But some have been ensnared by tough new rules introduced since 2012 that are designed to make Britain a "hostile environment" for illegal immigrants.

Legal migrants have been denied housing, jobs or medical treatment in Britain because of requirements that landlords, employers and doctors check people's immigration status. Others have been told by the government that they are in Britain illegally and must leave.

"What has happened to the Windrush generation isn't an anomaly. It's not due to an administrative error. It's a consequence of the hostile environment created by this (Conservative) government," London Mayor Sadiq Khan, a member of the opposition Labour Party, said Sunday.

In recent weeks Rudd and Prime Minister Theresa May have apologized repeatedly to the Windrush generation, saying all pre-1973 Commonwealth immigrants who don't already have British citizenship will get it, and those affected will get compensation.

Rudd's position worsened after she told lawmakers last week that the government did not have targets for deporting people — only for a 2017 memo to emerge that mentioned specific targets for "enforced removals."

Rudd says she didn't see the memo. She tweeted Friday that "I will work to ensure that our immigration policy is fair and humane."

That's not enough for many opposition lawmakers, 200 of whom have signed a letter demanding the government turn its promises to the migrants into law.

The Windrush debacle is also causing anxiety for the 3 million European Union citizens living in Britain who are concerned about their immigration status after the country leaves the EU next March. The British government says they will be allowed to stay and has promised to set up a simple no-fuss registration process.

But Labour lawmaker David Lammy, a strong critic of the government's immigration policies, said the scandal would cause EU citizens to think, "My God, if this can happen to Windrush, of course it can happen to us."

The Conservative government has an oft-stated but long-unmet goal of reducing net immigration below 100,000 people a year, less than half the current level. Many voters who backed leaving the EU cited a desire to reduce the number of migrants coming to Britain.</s>Britain's Home Secretary Amber Rudd has resigned after acknowledging that she misled lawmakers about targets for deporting immigrants.

Rudd stepped down following the publication of a letter she sent to Prime Minister Theresa May discussing the "ambitious but deliverable" goal to deport 10 percent more illegal immigrants in the coming years.

The letter, published by The Guardian newspaper, contradicts Rudd's earlier claims that her department had no such targets. It comes amid an ongoing controversy sparked by the newspaper's earlier reporting that some people who migrated to the U.K. from Britain's Caribbean colonies immediately after World War II had been denied medical care or threatened with deportation.

The post-World War II migrants, who came to Britain to take jobs as nurses, railway workers and others, are collectively known as the "Windrush generation," after the ship that brought many of them to the U.K. in 1948.

As The Associated Press notes, they "had an automatic right to settle in the U.K. But some have been ensnared by tough new rules introduced since 2012 that were intended to make Britain a 'hostile environment' for illegal immigrants."

"What has happened to the Windrush generation isn't an anomaly. It's not due to an administrative error. It's a consequence of the hostile environment created by this (Conservative) government," London Mayor Sadiq Khan, a member of the opposition Labour Party, said Sunday, according to AP.

The Guardian also reports that a former Home Office employee acknowledged that thousands of "landing cards" recording the arrival of Caribbean migrants in the U.K. had been deliberately destroyed in recent years.

According to the newspaper: "The former employee (who has asked for his name not to be printed) said it was decided in 2010 to destroy the disembarkation cards, which dated back to the 1950s and 60s, when the Home Office's Whitgift Centre in Croydon was closed and the staff were moved to another site. Employees in his department told their managers it was a bad idea, because these papers were often the last remaining record of a person's arrival date, in the event of uncertainty or lost documents. The files were destroyed in October that year, when Theresa May was home secretary."

Rudd and May recently apologized over the controversy, saying all immigrants from the Commonwealth who arrived in the U.K. before 1973 are eligible for British citizenship.</s>Some absolute classics from Fleet Street’s finest over the weekend. The usually sagacious John Rentoul’s Saturday column for the Indy declared Amber Rudd to be in a “surprisingly strong position”:

Dan Hodges at 5:13pm yesterday evening was almost onto something with his view that the latest Guardian story “supports Rudd”:

Top prize however goes to Paul Mason, who confidently tweeted at 9.56pm: “It’s become easier to imagine the end of the world than a Tory minister resigning for probably lying.”

News of Rudd’s departure broke just minutes later. Mason immediately fired off another 20 tweets to bury the take and cover his modesty. Peak neoliberalism? Peak punditry…</s>Amber Rudd was Britain's Peter Dutton - the overseer of immigration policy, which just like in Australia, under the centre-right governing party has become more "hostile" on migration. Both parties now move on an axis that begins with tough measures on illegal migration but gradually morphs into a general anti-migration sentiment as they try to head off the appeal of far-right factions. She may need courage. British PM Theresa May speaks after the unveiling a statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, London last week. Is it the backlash to that hostility that fed into the fortnight-long outrage when it emerged, on the eve of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), that Britain had been threatening Commonwealth citizens invited to the UK from the Caribbean during the days of the empire, that they could be deported. The so-called Windrush generation were given indefinite leave to remain when they arrived over a two-decade period from the late 1940s but because there were scant or no records kept at the time, for some it is impossible to prove their legitimate right to live in Britain.

The optics of the once-great Empire inviting the children of the Commonwealth into Britannia's bosom only to cruelly threaten to eject them from the land they proudly call home decades later could easily be the sort of thing Theresa May referred to when she warned her Conservative party was too often seen as the "nasty party." Labour's Diane Abbott (Rudd's shadow), David Lammy, a north London MP and prominent campaigner on black and minority issues and Yvette Cooper, a one-time Labour leader candidate successfully linked the treatment of the Windrush generation to the Tories' broader approach to migrants - an on-going sore in the political debate after Brexit. Rudd quit, not because of Windrush per se (the government has apologised and assured there will be no deportations and compensation granted) but because of an error she made over whether or not the Conservatives set targets for deportations of removals of illegal migrants in general. When asked, Rudd told Cooper in Parliament: “We do not have targets for removals.” But documents emerged in the media showing the home office had set targets. On Friday, Rudd attempted to cling on by saying she had not read the correspondence cc'ed into her office. But on Sunday, the same newspaper again citing Home Office sources, published in full a letter from Rudd to May spelling out her "aim of increasing forced removals by more than 10 per cent over the next few years." The debate then switched into one about the semantics between "ambition" and "targets". But Rudd knew it was over and just before the 10pm news - the flagship evening bulletins in the UK - she quit.

Targets for deportations had become a loaded phrase in the debate, used by the left to argue that the Tories were not only nasty but actively hostile to foreigners. And this is where it spells danger for May. The prime minister was home secretary and author of the policy to make Britain a "hostile environment" for migrants. Under her tenure, buses with the words "Go home or face arrest" written on the side were driven around multicultural parts of London. Rudd has been serving as a political shield for May and taking the heat on a culture initiated when May was in her job. With Rudd gone, it is now May squarely in the firing line. May was a rare survivor of the Home Office, which has claimed another victim in Amber Rudd, to become prime minister. As she alluded to in her letter, it is a department few politicians survive. She might survive still but it is undeniable that with Rudd gone all roads now lead to May.

Rudd's demise also serves as a cautionary lesson on the precariousness of the politics of hostile immigration policies so popular in Australia right now. Tough talking can be attractive to the electorate and qualify you amongst the grassroots for the party leadership and prime ministership, but tides can turn and when they do, as May’s case demonstrates, it may be when the price you have to pay is the largest of all.</s>LONDON — Britain’s interior minister resigned Sunday amid a scandal over authorities’ mistreatment of long-term United Kingdom residents wrongly caught up in a government drive to reduce illegal immigration.

Prime Minister Theresa May’s office said late Sunday that she had accepted the resignation of Home Secretary Amber Rudd.

The scandal has dominated headlines in Britain for days and has sparked intense criticism of the Conservative government’s tough immigration policies.

Rudd had been due to make a statement to Parliament on Monday over what has become known as the Windrush scandal.

The furor has grown since The Guardian newspaper reported that some people who came to the U.K. from the Caribbean in the decades after World War II had recently been refused medical care in Britain or threatened with deportation because they could not produce paperwork proving their right to reside in the country.

Those affected belong to the “Windrush generation,” named for the ship Empire Windrush, which in 1948 brought hundreds of Caribbean immigrants to Britain, which was seeking nurses, railway workers and others to help it rebuild after the devastation of World War II.

They and subsequent Caribbean migrants came from British colonies or ex-colonies and had an automatic right to settle in the U.K. But some have been ensnared by tough new rules introduced since 2012 that are designed to make Britain a “hostile environment” for illegal immigrants.

Legal migrants have been denied housing, jobs or medical treatment in Britain because of requirements that landlords, employers and doctors check people’s immigration status. Others have been told by the government that they are in Britain illegally and must leave.

“What has happened to the Windrush generation isn’t an anomaly. It’s not due to an administrative error. It’s a consequence of the hostile environment created by this (Conservative) government,” London Mayor Sadiq Khan, a member of the opposition Labour Party, said Sunday.

In recent weeks Rudd and May have apologized repeatedly to the Windrush generation, saying all pre-1973 Commonwealth immigrants who don’t already have British citizenship will get it, and those affected will get compensation.

Rudd’s position worsened after she told lawmakers last week that the government did not have targets for deporting people — only for a 2017 memo to emerge that mentioned specific targets for “enforced removals.”

Rudd said she didn’t see the memo, but The Guardian later published a leaked letter she wrote to the prime minister discussing an aim of increasing removals by 10%.

Resisting calls to resign, Rudd tweeted Friday that “I will work to ensure that our immigration policy is fair and humane.”

That’s not enough for many opposition lawmakers, 200 of whom have signed a letter demanding the government turn its promises to the migrants into law.

The Windrush debacle is also causing anxiety for the 3 million European Union citizens living in Britain who are concerned about their immigration status after the country leaves the EU next March. The British government says they will be allowed to stay and has promised to set up a simple no-fuss registration process.

But Labour lawmaker David Lammy, a strong critic of the government’s immigration policies, said the scandal would cause EU citizens to think, “My God, if this can happen to Windrush, of course it can happen to us.”

The Conservative government has an oft-stated but long-unmet goal of reducing net immigration below 100,000 people a year, less than half the current level. Many voters who backed leaving the EU cited a desire to reduce the number of migrants coming to Britain.

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Amber Rudd resigns as the United Kingdom's Home Secretary amid controversy over the threatened deportation of Windrush generation immigrants.