Former Home Secretary Amber Rudd was “not supported as she should have been”, an inquiry into her resignation has concluded.
Rudd quit the role in April at the height of the Windrush scandal, saying she had “inadvertently misled” MPs, telling them that the department did not use targets for deporting illegal immigrants.
In a leaked internal report, which was launched after her resignation, it concludes that Rudd was badly briefed by civil servants.
The report by Sir Alex Allen, Theresa May’s independent adviser on ministerial standards, which is out later on Friday, says she was let down.
It said that due to a series of confused email exchanges and crossed wires, Rudd was given the wrong information before, during and after the crucial committee hearing that cost her her job.
It was during a home affairs select committee on 25 April that Rudd gave the inaccurate assertion that there were no targets.
Her claim was soon rubbished when the Guardian published a memo in which Rudd set out her “ambitious but deliverable” aim to deport 10% more illegal immigrants over the “next few years” to Theresa May.
Despite the failings, Allen does not recommend any civil servant face a misconduct investigation.
Speaking to the BBC last month about her career, Hastings and Rye MP Ms Rudd said she been misled by some civil servants about immigration enforcement.
Speaking on Nick Robinson’s Political Thinking podcast, Rudd said she should have done more to find out what was happening but when she started “really probing... it became evident that [officials] didn’t know what was going on.”
She added that the experience had made her more sceptical of civil servants.