May’s Past Bites Her as Minister Admits Wrongful Deportations
- She wanted ‘hostile environment’ for illegal immigrants
- Elderly legal migrants were locked up and sent abroad
Theresa May
Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Theresa May’s past policy decisions came back to bite her after a minister said that the Home Office, which the prime minister ran for six years, had wrongly locked up and deported people who had the right to live in Britain.
May’s time as Home Secretary was marked by a determination to reduce net immigration numbers. She said in 2012 that she wanted to create a “really hostile environment for illegal immigrants.” Rules were applied strictly, and ended up affecting people they hadn’t been designed to target.