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RUDD 'NO DUD'
Amber Rudd cleared of incompetence over resignation as Home Secretary – paving way for frontbench comeback
AMBER Rudd has been cleared of any incompetence over her resignation as Home Secretary, paving the way for a frontbench comeback.
The former Cabinet minister quit last month during the Windrush scandal after misleading MPs by denying the existence of deportation targets.
But an internal government probe ordered by Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood has now has found Ms Rudd was not to blame for the bungle.
Instead, the inquiry - carried out by former mandarin Sir Alex Allan - singled out failings by two senior Home Office officials, the Director General of Immigration Enforcement Hugh Ind and his boss, the Home Office’s Second Permanent Secretary Patsy Wilkinson.
It was judged that neither had a grip on whether targets existed, or who had set them.
Mr Ind also gave the wrong advice to Ms Rudd on the afternoon of her fateful appearance in front of the Home Affairs Select Committee that deportation targets didn’t exist, when they did and across a series of different offices.
Both were moved from their jobs on Thursday after being summoned by Home Office boss Sir Philip Rutnam.
Mr Ind has been sent to Cabinet Office to work on the Public Sector Apprenticeships Strategy, seen in Whitehall as a painful demotion.
Ms Wilkinson takes on a national security role outside of the Home Office.
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A Home Office spokesman said the staffing moves were not a result of the report and that Mr Ind was “just moving department”.
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