HMT “Empire Windrush”: 80th Anniversary

Lord Morse Excerpts

Tuesday 14th April 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The noble Lord is quite right to say that the important thing in all this is that we recognise the contribution of both the Windrush generation and the second generation in designing whatever the legacy of Windrush 80 is going to be. As he rightly suggests, that should include young people who are the descendants of the Windrush generation. I hope that significant work will be done with the steering committee to make sure that that happens and that it is the community that designs the lasting legacy.

[Lord Morse (CB)]

My Lords, I am very much in favour of these positive remarks, but please remember why we are making them and why we are having this discussion. In my time at the National Audit Office, we examined the treatment that many of the Windrush generation had, which cannot be described as anything but disgraceful, and we cannot forget that. We treated those people whom we asked to come to live in our country disgracefully, and we have taken a very long time, in my view, to put that even vaguely right.

[Baroness Taylor of Stevenage (Lab)]

The noble Lord is quite right to highlight that issue. There has been a focus on the fact that, while we cannot take away the hurt and harm that was done, we can do our best to recognise the contribution made by the Windrush generation and deal with the issues outstanding from the hurts caused to them. I thought that it was very interesting, when I was reading up on this, to read the poem included on the Windrush memorial at Waterloo station. The last few lines of it are:

“Remember … you called.


YOU. Called.


Remember, it was us, who came”.


I think we all have to remember that.