Sunday Shows Round Up: Theresa May Could Be Guilty Of Creating 'Institutional Racism' Say Labour

All you need to know from the Sunday shows

On such a lovely day, it’s understandable that you might not have wanted to sit through the Sunday politics shows, so HuffPost UK did it for you - and here are the key moments.

Windrush Generation

Shadow Foreign Secretary Emily Thornberry called on Rudd to resign on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show (this week hosted by Nick Robinson), saying: “We think if you’re a politician in charge of a department and a department does its job as badly as the Home Office has clearly been doing then you should resign, that’s the way it always used to be.

Over on ITV’s Peston on Sunday, Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said as well as Rudd, the Prime Minister should consider her position.

While Thornberry refused to label the Government as “racist” over the policy, Shadow Equalities Secretary Dawn Butler had no such misgivings. She told Sky’s Paterson on Sunday the creation of a “hostile atmosphere” to illegal immigrants by Theresa May when she was Home Secretary could be classified as “institutionally racist”.

She then went further, saying May could be accused of racism.

Another critic of May on the Sunday shows was former Tory Chair Baroness Warsi. On Peston, she said she was appalled by the infamous ‘Go Home’ vans sanction by the Home Office in 2013.

She also likened the shame of the Windrush scandal to that caused by Enoch Powell’s ‘Rivers of blood’ speech, saying: “At a time when we’re looking back 50 years to those divisive comments by Enoch Powell, that was a moment of shame and I think the Windrush tragedy is another moment of shame.”

Conservatives on the Sunday shows lined up to express their regret over the debacle, with the word “ashamed” getting more than one airing. However, the all offered their support to the under-fire Rudd.

Justice Secretary David Gauke told the BBC: “I think it is right that both the Home Secretary and the Prime Minister have apologised for this,” he said, later adding: “The central policy is right but clearly there have been very significant failures in terms of how this is being implemented and it’s right to address that.”

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss told BBC Radio 5Live’s Pienaar’s Politics she was “very upset” by the debacle.

She said “I have friends that are children that are part of that of that generation.

“I see people in my working life who make a massive contribution to this country.”

She added: “I do feel ashamed. I hate the idea that people that are so important to this country feel unwelcome and that they might feel that the Government doesn’t welcome them because we do and that makes me very upset.”

Former Immigration Minister James Brokenshire said he was “horrified” by the scandal.

On why there had been no resignations, Defence Minister Tobias Ellwood said: “I can’t answer for that.”

Anti-Semitism

Emily Thornberry told Nick Robinson she was “fed up with hearing this dreadful stuff” when asked about anti-Semitism in the Labour Party.

She revealed how just last week a woman started a conversation with her which veered into anti-Semitism, believing that was a way of showing support to Labour.

Appearing on Pienaar’s Politics, Labour MP Margaret Hodge said she had “never known it like this” in her 50 years of being a party member.

She said: “I fought the BNP in 2010 and when Nick Griffin announced that he was going to be the candidate against me I thought: ‘Blimey, I’m going to get buckets full of anti-Semitism’ but I tell you I didn’t. I got a bit, but not much. I’m getting more now - and nothing like Luciana Berger and Ruth Smeeth and these people - and I think the reason for that is social media.”

Hodge added: “At the moment, I said in the House, I don’t feel at home in the party and I feel a bit of fear around this anti-Semitism which I never thought I’d feel. That was something I associated with my parents’ generation.”

Syria

Tobias Ellwood defended MPs not getting a vote on military action against the Syrian regime, saying it would be “giving the game away.”

Bank of England

John McDonnell suggested he might change the mandate of the Bank of England to ensure it considers unemployment as well as inflation targets should Labour come to power.

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