“Govt's refusal to grant a full public inquiry to Windrush victims, deeply disrespectful”
L abour continues to resist calls for a full statutory public inquiry into the government's mistreatment of Windrush victims, despite repeated demands from survivors, campaigners, and legal experts. In an exclusive interview with JamRadio, the Home Office minister for immigration and citizenship, Mike Tapp, revealed the widening gap between ministerial rhetoric and meaningful accountability.
During the interview, the minister repeatedly insisted that the government had “taken clear action to understand the lessons,” pointing to the appointment of the Windrush Commissioner and the re‑establishment of the Windrush Unit. But when asked directly if victims of the Windrush scandal deserve the same level of scrutiny afforded to victims of the Post Office and Infected Blood Scandals, the minister offered no meaningful commitment, and no justification for the difference in treatment between the scandals, all at the hands of government.
Instead, the minister leaned heavily on the existence of so‑called “independent reviews and recommendations,” despite the fact that these reviews are not statutory inquiries, do not compel evidence, and do not provide the transparency or legal weight that victims have been demanding for years.
Watch Minister Mike Tapp answer questions over full public inquiry to victims of the Home Office Windrush Scandal
NEW - JAMRADIO - (EXCLUSIVE)
— Jam Radio UK News (@Jam_RadioUK) February 15, 2026
The Home Office Minister can’t answer a simple question: Why do Post Office and Infected Blood victims get full public inquiries, but Windrush victims don’t?
The Home Office caused this scandal. People died. Families were torn apart. Yet they still… pic.twitter.com/r2aCzKLdaV
These revelations come after the minister had previously admitted, the ‘independent’ Office of the Windrush Commissioner is staffed by Home Office officials, challenging the notion of its independence.
When pressed further on a public inquiry, the minister could be seen struggling to read the prompted answers on his screen, before pivoting to symbolic gestures, including an art exhibition held inside the Home Office, as evidence of “ownership” for the historical injustice. But for many affected families, these gestures ring hollow when the department responsible for harming them continues to control the narrative, the process, the limits of scrutiny and reparatory justice.
The government’s position stands in stark contrast to its approach to other state‑led scandals. Both the Post Office Horizon scandal and the Infected Blood Scandal received full statutory inquiries with legal powers, public hearings, compelled evidence and independent chairs. Windrush victims, by comparison, are being offered internal oversight mechanisms run by the very department that caused their suffering.
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Ship Away - Windrush board game - by Patricia Jones
The Home Office is effectively overseeing its own misconduct, setting its own boundaries, and determining the scope of its own examination. For a scandal that destroyed lives, livelihoods, and families, and in some cases contributed to deaths — this approach is not only inadequate, it is profoundly disrespectful.
Anthony Brown, a lawyer at WD Legal in Manchester who also faced deportation from the UK in the 1980s despite arriving here as a child from Jamaica in the 1960s, said: "The Home Office caused the harm to African Caribbean communities, according to recommendation 1 of the Windrush Lessons Learned Review. How come the Home Office get a Windrush Unit to fix the Home Office but the community harmed by them doesn't get an organisation it can use to repair the harm?"
Another survivor of the Home Office Scandal said: "Minister's refusal to grant a full statutory public inquiry is deeply disrespectful and reveals how the Home Office does not want any scrutiny of their awful behaviour."
The minister repeatedly emphasised the importance of “listening to the communities affected.” Yet the community’s clearest, most consistent demand of a full public inquiry is precisely the one thing government refuses to grant them.
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The interview clip ended with the minister’s team attempting to move the conversation on, a symbolic moment that captured the government’s attitude towards justice for the victims: acknowledge the scandal, express regret, but avoid the one action that would bring full transparency to how thousands of victims were mistreated by the Home Office.
In 2023 the Home Office fought vigorously to suppress an independent report into the historical roots of the Windrush scandal . The government’s attempt to suppress the report was also upheld by the Information Commissioner’s Office on the grounds that disclosure might “undermine trust” and affect the government's ability to shape future immigration policy.
As the Public Accountability Bill (Hillsborough Law) winds its way throught Parliament; the question remains unanswered: Why do Windrush victims not deserve the same level of truth‑seeking and accountability as victims of other government‑led scandals?
Until the government can answer that, its claims of “ownership” and “justice” will continue to ring hollow.
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