THE Home Office has been forced to publish a report into the origins of the Windrush scandal it had suppressed for three years.

The research paper said 30 years of racist immigration legislation designed to reduce Britain’s non-white population was behind the scandal.

The Historical Roots of the Windrush Scandal was published today following a court order by a tribunal judge.

It was written by a Home Office-commissioned historian, who has not been named, and described how “the British empire depended on racist ideology in order to function” and explained how this ideology had driven immigration laws passed in the postwar period.

The department rejected several freedom of information requests asking for it to be released. It claimed it might have damaged affected communities’ “trust in government” and “its future development of immigration policy.”

Transparency campaigner James Coombs forced its publication after taking the case to the information commissioner.

The paper found that “major immigration legislation in 1962, 1968 and 1971 was designed to reduce the proportion of people living in the United Kingdom who did not have white skin.”

Diane Abbott MP, who attempted without success to have the paper released through the home affairs select committee in 2022, said: “It is a disgrace that the Home Office tried not to release this report.

“It is as if they are trying to bury the whole history of immigration.” 

Concluding that the report should be published, tribunal judge Chris Hughes said that it was “highly improbable” that the wider dissemination of the study would impair future provision of advice to the department.

Referring to the protagonist of the novel 1984, he added that in George Orwell’s “masterpiece a justification for Winston Smith’s constant rewriting of old news stories was explained: ‘Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.’

“There is no more justification for Winston Smith’s work than for withholding from wider readership a significant study of the background to Windrush.”

Migration and Citizenship Minister Seema Malhotra said: “The Home Secretary and I agree with the court’s decision, but we are going further because it is in the public interest to do so. We have published the report online.

“While everyone will have their own views on the issues and judgements included in the report, it is a substantial piece of work that should support discussion on an important part of British history.”