Sajid Javid replaces Amber Rudd as Britain’s home secretary
Tories rallied around PM Theresa May, insisting Rudd accidentally “misled” MPs in scandal over targets for deporting long-time UK residents from Commonwealth countries
British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday appointed the first politician from an ethnic-minority group to the post of home secretary, as the government struggled to contain a scandal over the mistreatment of long-term residents from the Caribbean.
Sajid Javid replaces Amber Rudd, who resigned late on Sunday, saying she had “inadvertently” misled lawmakers about whether the government had deportation targets.
The “Windrush” immigration scandal has dominated headlines in Britain for days. It began when The Guardian reported that some people who moved to the UK from the Caribbean after the second world war had been refused medical care or threatened with deportation because they could not produce paperwork proving their right to live in Britain.
After the announcement, Javid said his “most urgent task” was to get to grips with the Windrush crisis, and ensure those affected “are all treated with the decency and the fairness they deserve”.
But when speaking to the BBC, he declined to say whether this affected immigration policy or targets for net removals.
