Amber Rudd has gone. Can the immigration target go next?

It’s hard not to feel a little sympathy for Amber Rudd. She was the lighting rod of the Windrush scandal, having inherited a deeply dysfunctional department from her predecessor, Theresa May. The “hostile environment” policy that led to the shameful Windrush debacle was developed under Mrs May, as was the situation where even senior Home Office officials didn’t know what going on. But as Mrs May herself said in 2004 when calling for the resignation of Labour ministers over an immigration debacle, ignorance is no excuse. Blaming others won’t cut it. Had Rudd handled herself brilliantly during this crisis, she would have survived it – perhaps even enhanced her reputation. But she messed up. “I bitterly, deeply regret that I didn’t see [Windrush] as more than individual cases that had gone wrong that needed addressing,” she said. “I didn’t see it as a systemic issue until very recently.” In which case, she was being very badly advised by her officials. Which