Political column - April 26

It took Jeremy Corbyn a little while to get to his punchline during Prime Minister's Questions.

He worked up to his climax question by question, bashing the treatment of the Windrush generation, highlighting immigration legislation - post 2010, that is - which he portrayed as cruel, heartless, shameful, and unjust, and pointing the finger at a former Home Secretary who had created a "hostile environment" which had cranked up the misery.

As it happened, it was that former Home Secretary who faced him, one Theresa May, whose record on immigration was actually one of total failure to come anywhere near Government targets.

In concentrating on the Windrush affair, Mr Corbyn was on more comfortable turf than of late, having wobbled and upset his own backbenchers in his response to that Russian (alleged) nerve agent attack on the streets of Salisbury and the (alleged) gassing of children by a dictator in Syria.

Here, in Parliament, he could confront the gang who really arouse his anger - the British Conservative Government - evidence of whose guilt he considers so incontrovertible that he hasn't even called for an inquiry.

Mrs May's response had two main strands, one of which was that Labour said and did much the same both in office and in opposition, and she played the trick of quoting Labour back at themselves.

The other was to make a distinction between the Windrush generation and illegal immigrants.

"The Windrush generation are British. They have contributed to this country. They have made their life here. They are here legally," she said.

"Up and down this country people want to ensure that the Government is taking action against those people who are here illegally, because it's not fair for people who work hard, day in day out, who contribute to this county and pay in to the life of this country to see people here illegally accessing services in the same way."

However she remained on the back foot and had to resort to her traditional payoff line of attacking Labour on the economy.

She may have thought she had ridden her way through it but then, during backbench questions, one Yvette Cooper stood up - a former shadow home secretary whom Mrs May had earlier quoted as saying stronger action was needed to bring immigration down.

"I was not going to raise this, but the Prime Minister quoted me," she said.

Eyes blazing, she went on: "Do not try to hide behind me or the Labour Party when she was warned repeatedly that the damage her obsession with her net migration target was doing...

"Do not try to hide behind civil servants when she set the policies, instilled in them the culture of disbelief and when the high commissioners told us this morning that they had warned the Foreign Office about the Windrush generation immigration problems in 2016."

There were cries directed to the Prime Minister of "shame on you." And as she rounded off, there were calls of "resign, resign."

Mrs May said to jeers: "Nobody is trying to blame anybody else." She had already apologised to the Windrush generation and did so again.

But it seems there are times when saying sorry is not enough.