Barking and Dagenham has joined four other London councils to back a Windrush Day celebration in the borough.

The decision follows a motion raised in the Council Assembly borough mayor Sanchia Alasia, which was supported and adopted by the full council.

This makes the council the fifth in London and the sixth in the country to commit to celebrating Windrush Day on June 22 each year, honouring African-Caribbean settlers who arrived in Britain between 1948 and 1971.

They take their name from the first batch who arrived on the Empire Windrush ship at Tilbury Docks in Essex.

Welcoming the decision, deputy leader Saima Ashraf said Windrush settlers made a “huge contribution” to the post-war rebuilding of Britain.

Following the motion, the mayor and council leader Darren Rodwell have written to the prime minister expressing concern at the government’s treatment of the generation and their families, and for an independent public enquiry to be set up.