May under pressure as Javid sets out stall for Home Office
He hits out at ‘hostile’ approach to illegal immigrants
THERESA MAY remained under pressure over her role in the Windrush scandal last night as the new Home Secretary distanced himself from her “hostile” approach to illegal immigration.
Sajid Javid, who replaced Amber Rudd at the Home Office, said the phrase used by the Prime Minister during her time as Home Secretary does not represent British values.
It came after Mrs May defended Government targets for deporting illegal immigrants and admitted she was aware of them when she was Home Secretary.
The PM gave Mr Javid the job after her ally Amber Rudd quit, admitting she “inadvertently” misled MPs over Government targets for removing illegal migrants amid pressure over the Windrush scandal.
Mr Javid pledged he will do “whatever it takes” to put right the treatment of Commonwealth citizens, who have been wrongly denied access to benefits and healthcare or threatened with deportation despite living in the UK for decades.
He promised to put his “own stamp” on the Home Office, and said he preferred a “compliant environment” for illegal immigrants to a “hostile” one as outlined by Mrs May in 2012 comments, which some have blamed for the treatment of the Windrush generation.
Although Mr Javid stopped short of promising an overhaul of Mrs May’s policies, he said: “I think the (hostile) terminology is incorrect, I think it’s a phrase that is unhelpful and does not represent the values as a country.”
In the Commons, Mr Javid told Windrush generation migrants who had struggled to prove their immigration status: “This never should have been the case and I will do whatever it takes to put it right.”
Earlier, Mrs May defended the existence of targets during a local election campaign visit to Greater Manchester: “When I was Home Secretary, yes, there were targets in terms of removing people from the country who were here illegally. This is important. If you talk to members of the public, they want to ensure that we are dealing with people who are here illegally.”
Former investment banker Mr Javid was given the job during a telephone call with Mrs May and becomes the first person from an ethnic-minority background to hold one of the four Great Offices of State. He said: “The most urgent task I have is to help those British citizens that came from the Caribbean, the so-called Windrush generation, and make sure that they are treated with the decency and the fairness that they deserve.”
He added: “We are going to have a strategy in place that does something the previous Home Secretary set out last week, about making sure we have an immigration policy that is fair, it treats people with respect and with decency.”
Mr Javid was replaced as Housing and Communities Secretary by James Brokenshire, who has recently returned to Westminster after treatment for cancer, while International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt took on Ms Rudd’s equalities brief.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn sought to keep the pressure on Mrs May, saying she must address questions about “what she actually did as Home Secretary”.
“She was presiding over, in her terms, the creation of a hostile environment,” he said.
SAJID JAVID became the first British Asian to hold one of the four Great Offices of State with his appointment as Home Secretary yesterday.
And he immediately drew on his background as the son of a Pakistani bus driver as he pledged to deal with the Windrush scandal which led to the scalp of his predecessor Amber Rudd.
“I myself am a second-generation migrant,” he told MPs in the House of Commons.
“Like the Caribbean Windrush generation, my parents came to this country from the Commonwealth in the 1960s, they too came to help rebuild this country and offer all that they had.
“So when I heard that people who were longstanding pillars of their community were being impacted for simply not having the right documents to prove their legal status in the UK, I thought it could be my mum, my brother, my uncle, or even me.”
The Bromsgrove MP’s father Abdul arrived in Britain in 1961 from Pakistan with just £1 in his pocket and earned the nickname “Mr Night and Day” because he worked all hours.
Mr Javid senior inspired a devotion to Margaret Thatcher in his son at the age of just 11, after switching to the Tories from Labour during the winter of discontent.
Now at the age of 48, Mr Javid junior takes on a huge job at the Home Office at a time when the terror and security threat to Britain is great, and amid a major immigration policy scandal.
As a Cabinet Minister, he voted for the “hostile environment” reforms Prime Minister Theresa May brought forward as Home Secretary and which are being blamed for the Windrush scandal.
He pledged to “put things right” and to put his “own stamp” on the Home Office, but stopped short of committing to reversing Mrs May’s policy, despite rumbles of disquiet even on the Tory benches as he answered an urgent question on the scandal.
Mr Javid is also sure to face similar questions as his predecessor about the Government’s target for reducing net migration to the UK to below 100,000.
And the Home Secretary has a major task in drawing up a post Brexit immigration system that will satisfy those who voted to leave because they wanted the UK to get more control over who comes into the country.
He will also need to ensure that EU nationals already in the UK do not suffer the same fate as those caught up in the Windrush scandal.
Mr Javid will now sit on the Cabinet’s key Brexit strategy subcommittee, which meets tomorrow for a crunch meeting on the UK’s customs policy.
Despite campaigning for Remain during the referendum, a little over a week ago he made it clear he backed leaving the trade bloc, which allows tarifffree trade between members but imposes a common external tariff, prohibiting members striking independent free trade deals with other countries around the world.
On April 22, Mr Javid tweeted: “British people gave politicians clear instructions through EU referendum. Includes leaving the customs union, an intrinsic part of the EU. Britain must leave CU and be able to negotiate and sign own trade deals.
“Some see the CU as some kind of post-Brexit comfort blanket. But they’re only thinking about the past referendum, not the UK’s future. Let’s look forwards with confidence.”
The father of four grew up with his family in Rochdale before moving to Bristol, where Mr Javid attended Downend School, a comprehensive, before going on to study politics and economics at Exeter University.
A career in investment banking followed, taking him to New York and Singapore as well as London. At the age of 25 he became the youngest vice-president at Chase Manhattan Bank and was later headhunted by Deutsche Bank. And he reportedly made more than £20m during his high-flying career.
Part of the 2010 parliamentary intake, he was quickly made a member of the Work and Pensions Select Committee and his background in finance made him an obvious choice for a job under Chancellor George Osborne.
In 2012 he was appointed Economic Secretary to the Treasury, and within two years he became Culture Secretary.
In 2015, he was made Business Secretary and Mrs May gave him the job of Communities Secretary when she became Prime Minister the following year, seen by some as a demotion for an ally of Mr Osborne.
Although his family heritage is Muslim, Mr Javid does not practise any religion but his wife, Laura, his childhood sweetheart, is a Christian.
He has a long track record of fundraising, including drumming up £710,000 in one go for the Disasters Emergency Committee and heading up a trek to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro for Help the Aged.
Despite experiencing bouts of racism in the past, Mr Javid describes Britain as the “world’s most tolerant country”, adding “if you have talent, colour and gender is less important”.
When I heard that people who were pillars of their community were being impacted for not having the right documents, I thought it could be my mum, my brother, my uncle, or even me.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid.