The BBC presenter Clive Myrie has said he felt “angry and ashamed” of the UK after the Windrush scandal, which affected two of his brothers.
The foreign correspondent and newsreader, whose parents moved to Bolton from Jamaica in the early 1960s, reveals the impact of the government’s “hostile environment policy” in his upcoming memoir.
Extracts published in the Times on Saturday detail how one of Myrie’s half-brothers was denied benefits and healthcare, while the other was unable to travel on his Jamaican passport, but neither received compensation.
“We’re all agreed that what has happened is a complete and utter disgrace – the question is, what do you do about it?” he told the paper’s magazine.
“I’m still hoping society understands what happened and tries to rectify it. You know, these people need restitution and that hasn’t happened yet – even though we all agree that something needs to be done.”
The scandal, first uncovered by the Guardian, resulted in at least 83 people who had arrived from the Caribbean before 1973 being wrongly deported because the Home Office failed to keep records of those granted permission to stay.
An estimated 15,000 people were eligible for the Windrush compensation scheme, but payouts have remained elusive.
In June, statistics revealed only one in four of the 6,348 applications submitted had received payments.
In his book Myrie, who was born in Lancashire, recalls how his older half-brothers Lionel and Peter arrived in the UK on Jamaican passports as children.
In 2016, Lionel was asked to produce proof that he had lived in the UK since 1973, despite his parents arriving as British citizens under the British Nationality Act.
It meant he was unable to secure work and was denied benefits and healthcare. Lionel was able to prove his case, in part, after finding a photo of himself in a school choir in 1971 in a local newspaper. He is still waiting for a passport and compensation.
Peter – who had prostate cancer – faced a similar predicament when he tried to gain a British passport in order to take his daughter to Jamaica.
He died before he was able to get a passport or compensation. Myrie, who hosts Mastermind, said the events made him “angry and also ashamed of my own country”.
Asked if he thought there would be shock that even he was affected by the scandal, he said: “The shock will probably come because people think they know me.
“But it could have happened to anyone with relations who came here under the Nationality Act. It could have happened to the family of Trevor McDonald, Lenny Henry, Marcus Rashford.”
The 59-year-old’s memoir details the racism encountered by his family after immigrating, including his mother, Lynne, being asked where her tail was “because all black people are monkeys”.
She had been a primary school teacher in Jamaica, but her qualifications were not recognised in the UK.
“Making it clear that the qualification from a fellow country within the British colonial system was not good enough … That’s pure racism, pure bullshit,” said Myrie.
