Kent MP and former immigration minister Damian Green has said Amber Rudd was left with no option but to fall on her sword after it was announced she resigned as Home Secretary in the wake of the Windrush scandal.

Mr Green praised her track record in office after she quit the role admitting she had inadvertently misled MPs over whether the Home Office had immigration targets.

Ms Rudd is the fourth cabinet minister to have left since the election last year.

She has been replaced by former Communities Secretary Sajid Javid.

Ashford MP Mr Green, who was forced to resign as the effective deputy prime minister last year, said: “She was a very good Home Secretary and did some very good things in terms of counter terrorism, modern day slavery and trying to crack down on some of the terrible things that happened on the internet.

"But she made a mistake and resigned.”

He added that the Windrush controversy had been a fiasco but that the public were able to differentiate between illegal immigration and migrants who had rights to be in the UK.

“I think the public do have a very clear distinction between people who have got no right to be here and people who have got it perfect right to be here.

"Clearly the Windrush fiasco has been terrible for individuals who have been here for 50 years and are quite right to feel that the system has let them down.”

The resignation comes at an awkward time for the Conservative government with local council elections taking place on Thursday.

This includes Maidstone Borough Council and Tunbridge Wells Borough Council.