In the letter to Theresa May sent in January 2017, Rudd outlined her plan to "deliver the 10 per cent uplift in enforced removals over the next few years". She laid out in some detail in the four-page letter the structural changes she was putting in place in the Home Office to meet the target.
However, in front of the Home Affairs select committee last week she insisted under questioning that "we don't have targets for removals", adding "That's not how we operate."
One Cabinet colleague suggested earlier yesterday that her career was hanging by a thread in the wake of the Windrush scandal in which it emerged that Caribbean migrants legally entitled to remain in the UK had been threatened with deportation.
"If something else comes out now she's in trouble, if there's one more thing then she's done," said the Cabinet minister.
Rudd faced accusations of misleading parliament. At the weekend, Rudd insisted she had not seen a six-page memo sent to her and others which laid out a specific target of achieving 12,800 "enforced returns" in 2017/18.
Today, the former immigration minister Brandon Lewis admitted that Rudd had been aware of an "ambition" to increase removals by 10 per cent. But Lewis insisted that was not the same as a concrete target.
The latest letter to emerge, which was leaked to the Guardian, was sent to May in January 2017 and was headlined "Immigration Enforcement". In it, Rudd outlines her strategy for "arresting, detaining and forcibly removing illegal migrants" and a need for "sufficient beds" to meet the "10% uplift in enforced removals".
Sources within the Home Affairs committee had suggested Rudd would be recalled to give further evidence and explain her previous denial on targets that has sparked the latest crisis.
The source suggested the powerful committee will demand all documents sent to Rudd on deportation targets amid suggestions that further correspondence was circulated.
Rudd announced she would make a statement to the House of Commons today in a message posted on Twitter on Saturday. She tweeted: "I wasn't aware of removal targets. I accept I should have been and I am sorry that I wasn't."
The Home Office has been reeling in the wake of the Windrush scandal with blame for it laid at the door of both Rudd and May, her predecessor as Home Secretary. Rudd has previously attempted to shift the blame on to over zealous immigration officials.
