Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Floella Benjamin has gathered senior figures from her party for a briefing with victims and survivors of the Windrush Home Office Scandal, campaigners and lawyers.
Lord Purvis of Tweed, leader of the Lib Dems in the Lords and foreign affairs spokesperson, explained that he had spoken to Windrush Justice Clinic co-founder Gifty Edila and others on the campaign for justice. He and his colleagues wanted to hear directly from victims and survivors about their experiences and be informed of the ongoing issues so they could ask ministers the right questions.
Bishop Dr Desmond Jaddoo, chair and director of the Windrush National Organisation, told the party there was a lot of focus on compensation but hardly any focus on status. What does justice look like? Acceptance. 'We have a monument. It's great to have a monument but we want acceptance. Do not see skin colour, see who we are.' The language needs to change, he added. When the Windrush generation arrived in the UK, 'they were looked upon as immigrants. Stop referring to our elders as immigrants. They came here with British passports'.
A daughter told the meeting her mother was going to be deported because she had no status. There was no proof her mother came to the UK in the 1960s, prompting the daughter to point out that she was proof. The daughter had to travel to Sierra Leone to obtain paperwork from her mother's school.
A brother said his sister went to Jamaica and couldn’t return for 17 months. She was an athlete for England at the time. A husband and wife who lost their home during their long ordeal were recently awarded compensation - but not before they received eight nil awards between them.
Solicitor Pauline Campbell said families cannot directly complain to the Parliamentary Health and Service Ombudsman - their case must be referred to the ombudsman by an MP. The 'MP filter' needs to be removed.
The ombudsman is an important avenue for justice. It was through an investigation published by the ombudsman that I learned about the ordeal and injustice that Thomas and his family have suffered. The Home Office failed to consider his late wife Caroline's evidence and wrongly excluded his pension loss.
Thomas provided a brief overview of his family's ordeal with the party. He spoke about the impact on his children, especially when his wife was ill. 'The kids had to do all the running around for me. My wife had 35 rounds of chemo but I could not be there.'
Anna Steiner, co-founder of the Windrush Justice Clinic, highlighted inconsistencies in Home Office decision-making. Two sisters had near-identical experiences. One sister was offered £20,000 in compensation, which was eventually doubled. The other sister was offered £10,000, which was not increased.
Marie Goldman MP, women and equalities spokesperson for the party, asked what issue needed to be sorted out first. 'Legal aid. I've raised this with both governments and not had a proper answer,' replied Baroness Benjamin.
Dechert's Tim Bowden suggested it would be useful to look at the funding issue not necessarily as legal aid but legal support, which can be found in other compensation schemes.
The last parliamentary hearing on the Windrush scandal appeared to be a home affairs select committee session on the compensaton scheme in November 2021. Lord Purvis said he would look into this. The party would explore opportunities to raise issues in parliament following the king's speech next month.
Closing the meeting, Baroness Benjamin said: 'The more we keep this issue on the table the better, so Windrush keeps being real.'
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