Newport MP calls for urgent action on Windrush Generation

This week it emerged changes to migration rules meant some people who arrived in the UK from Commonwealth countries before 1971 had been told to prove they are legally in the UK – or face deportation.

And, addressing home secretary Amber Rudd in Parliament this week, Labour MP Ms Morden said: “Constituents of mine from Commonwealth countries who have lived here on paper visas for many decades have now been refused Universal Credit because they do not have biometric residence permits, which they have never been told they need.

“This is causing real hardship, not least to those with no papers, with the immigration issues that that brings, and the BRP (Biometric Residence Permit) process is costly and lengthy.

“What are the government going to do urgently to address this for those who have contributed so much to our country?”

Ms Rudd replied she was setting up a taskforce to ensure a “swift response” to the issue, and fees involved would be waived.

Speaking outside Parliament, Ms Morden said: “I hope the government are serious about dealing with this issue.

“We’ve seen people already facing enormous difficulties and hundreds of thousands more could be affected.

“It’s important their rights are confirmed to live here, and to access government services.”

Ms Morden’s Assembly counterpart John Griffiths also raised the issue in the Senedd this week, saying, saying people affected were being subjected to “gross indignity and a great deal of uncertainty and anxiety”.

“I share the current outrage at the way that the UK Government is conducting checks on the status of those who migrated to the UK from Commonwealth countries between 1948 and 1971, resulting in a number of them being informed that they do not have the right to access public services and, indeed, may be deported,” he said.

Prime minister Theresa May has personally apologised to leaders of the Caribbean community for the anxiety caused.