Pakistani bus driver’s son is UK home minister
■ Amber Rudd resigns for ‘ misleading’ immigration report
London, April 30: British Prime Minister Theresa May appointed a new interior minister on Monday charged with clearing up a scandal over moves to deport elderly legal immigrants that has rocked her government.
Ms May named Sajid Javid to replace Amber Rudd, who quit the key ministerial post of home secretary late Sunday for having misled lawmakers over deportation targets for illegal immigrants.
The government is facing anger over the socalled Windrush scandal — wrongful moves to deport legal but undocumented elderly immigrants from the Caribbean.
A rapid riser in the government, 48- year- old Mr Javid’s first task will be to answer an urgent question in Parliament as he tries to take the heat out of the situation.
“Making sure that we have an immigration policy that is fair, treats people with respect and with decency — that will be one of my most urgent tasks,” he told reporters.
Ms Rudd told lawmakers last week that there were no targets for the removal of people deemed to be in the country illegally. But she felt it “necessary” to tender her resignation after the emergence of documents, addressed to her office, showing those goals were in place.
London, April 30: Pakistani- origin MP Sajid Javid was on Monday appointed as Britain’s new Home Secretary, hours after his predecessor Amber Rudd resigned after admitting that she had “inadvertently misled” Parliament over the existence of deportation targets for immigrants.
Javid, the son of a Pakistani bus driver whose family migrated to Britain in the 1960s, was promoted from his Cabinet post of Communities, Local Government and Housing minister.
The 48- year- old former investment banker becomes the first South Asian origin MP to hold the key portfolio in the UK Cabinet.
He is the Conservative party MP for Bromsgrove and has previously held business and culture portfolios in the UK government.
“The Queen has been pleased to approve the appointment of... Sajid Javid MP as secretary of state for the home department,” a Downing Street statement said.
His appointment is widely seen as a way for British Prime Minister Theresa May to curtail the backlash from the so- called Windrush scandal, which brought to light the unfair treatment of Commonwealth citizens from Jamaica over a lack of citizenship documentation.
“I was really concerned when I first started hearing and reading about some of the issues. It immediately impacted me. I’m a second- generation migrant. My parents came to this country... just like the Windrush generation,” Javid wrote in The Sunday Telegraph.
“When I heard about the Windrush issue I thought, That could be my mum it could be my dad it could be my uncle it could be me,” he added.
James Brokenshire, the former Northern Ireland secretary who stood down in January due to health reasons to have a tumour removed from his lung, has been moved into Javid’s old job as Housing, Communities and Local Government secretary.
UK international development secretary, Penny Mordaunt, takes on the additional role of minister for equalities.
The resignation of 52year- old Rudd, a key ally of May, followed weeks of pressure ever since her statement to the Parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee denying knowledge of any targets to remove illegal migrants from the UK.
Leaked memos and letters in the media seemed to contradict her claims, resulting in her decision to step down.
The furor has grown since The Guardian reported that some people who came to the UK from the Caribbean in the decades after World War II had recently been refused medical care in Britain or threatened with deportation because they could not produce paperwork proving their right to reside in the country. — PTI
The resignation of 52year- old Rudd, a key ally of May, followed weeks of pressure on her statement denying knowledge of any targets to remove illegal migrants from the UK. Javid, whose family migrated to Britain in 1960s, was promoted from his post of Communities, Local Government and Housing minister. The 48- year- old former investment banker becomes the first South Asian origin MP to hold the key portfolio in UK