British Home Secretary Amber Rudd quits over immigration scam

The top leader in British PM Theresa May's government quit amid claims that she mislead lawmakers on whether her department held targets for removing illegal immigrants in Britain.

May has accepted Rudd's resignation.

"The home secretary was forced to step down after a series of revelations in the Guardian over Windrush culminated in a leak on Friday that appeared to show she was aware of targets for removing illegal migrants from Britain," reported The Guardian newspaper.

Rudd was scheduled to make statement over the issue in the House of Commons on Monday.

She had tweeted: "I will be making a statement in the House of Commons on Monday in response to legitimate questions that have arisen on targets and illegal migration."

"I wasn't aware of specific removal targets. I accept I should have been and I'm sorry that I wasn't," she said.

"I didn't see the leaked document, although it was copied to my office as many documents are," Rudd said.

"Home Secretary I will work to ensure that our immigration policy is fair and humane," she said.

Reacting to her resignation, Tom Watson, the deputy leader of the Labour Party, tweeted: "I see Amber Rudd is carrying the can for the person originally responsible for this scandal - Theresa May."

According to CNN, The Home Affairs Select Committee questioned Rudd last week over quotas for removal of the Windrush generation.

The Windrush generation were the first large group of Caribbean migrants who had arrived in the UK following the World War II.

Image: Amber Rudd Twitter page