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Home Office swamped by sarcastic Valentine’s Day messages on Twitter

Efforts included ‘Roses are red, Theresa’s in Parliament, when will we be rid of her hostile environment?’
Efforts included ‘Roses are red, Theresa’s in Parliament, when will we be rid of her hostile environment?’ Efforts included ‘Roses are red, Theresa’s in Parliament, when will we be rid of her hostile environment?’

Disgruntled Twitter users have been sending sarcastic Valentine’s Day messages to the Home Office after an old tweet resurfaced about “sham” marriages.

“#Rosesareredvioletsareblue, if your marriage is a sham we’ll be on to you,” read the tweet from February 14 2013, when Theresa May was overseeing the Government’s so-called “hostile environment” immigration policy as Home Secretary.

The policy, which Mrs May argued at the time was to “deport first and hear appeals later”, came under intense scrutiny in 2018 after thousands of Caribbean migrants – known as the Windrush generation – were challenged over their status and even deported, despite being in the country lawfully.

Current Home Secretary Sajid Javid has promised to “do right by the Windrush generation”.

But the 2013 tweet recaptured the attention of Twitter users six years on, with many taking the opportunity to add their own twist to the traditional rhyme.

Brexit was a hot topic among the amateur poets.

Among them was a poetic joke about the Transport Secretary’s now-abandoned plan to pay millions to a shipping company which did not own any ships.

One rhyme managed to combine romance with vivid imagery of a no-deal “apocalypse”.

Meanwhile, others went in for questions around how the Brexit referendum campaigns were funded …

… or whether there was any “Russian money” involved.

One quick-witted commentator even integrated the Prime Minister’s recent waste-saving recommendation of scraping mould from jam.

Elsewhere, another harked back to her “naughtiest” activity.

But many respondents failed to see the funny side and were simply appalled.

The Home Office declined to comment on the record but said on background that the 2013 tweet is not in line with the department’s current social media approach of posting content that is serious and useful to the public.