New Home Secretary Sajid Javid pledges 'decency and fairness' to Windrush victims

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Britain’s first ethnic minority Home Secretary today pledged “decency and fairness” for the Windrush generation migrants.

Sajid Javid, the son of a Pakistan-born bus conductor, gave the promise after he replaced Amber Rudd in one of the toughest jobs in politics.

He was picked by Theresa May to defuse a crisis that was increasingly lapping at the door of No 10. Mr Javid, 48, whose Muslim parents came to Britain in 1961, said they would be “very proud”. But he added that his “most urgent task” would be to reassure Windrush migrants. His responsibilities include taking charge of the fight against Islamist terrorism as well as immigration policy.

The whirlwind reshuffle was triggered by Ms Rudd falling on her sword at 10pm last night after documents emerged that appeared to contradict her assurances that she had not been told about Whitehall targets for the removal of illegal migrants.

James Brokenshire, who left the Government in January to be treated for lung cancer, replaces Mr Javid as Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government.

His duties include the political priorities of delivering more house building and making tower blocks safe after the Grenfell Tower disaster.

Amber Rudd resigned as Home Secretary on Sunday night 
Getty Images

International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt takes over Ms Rudd’s responsibilities as Minister for Women and Equalities. The appointments were announced just before 10.30am by Downing Street.

Mr Javid said his priorities would be the “heavy responsibility” of keeping the public safe, and to look “carefully” at immigration policy.

“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 told Sky.

On his policing and security role, he said: “That’s a huge responsibility, something I take very seriously.”

Asked how he felt to be the first politician from an ethnic minority background to reach the office of Home Secretary, he said his parents would be proud. “My parents came to our great country in the Sixties,” he said. “They came from Pakistan to help build this country. I think for them to see one of their sons rise to this great office of state, I’m sure they will be very proud.”

He added: “I haven’t called my mum yet but I will do later.”

However, the departure of Ms Rudd left the Prime Minister more exposed to the heat of the Windrush controversy. Cabinet minister Chris Grayling was forced to rally to the Prime Minister’s defence as questions grew over what she knew about removal targets for illegal immigrants.

As the spotlight increasingly swirled from Ms Rudd onto Mrs May, Labour called on the premier to make a Commons statement on the Home Office targets.

The Evening Standard can reveal that Hugh Ind, the director general of Immigration Enforcement at the Home Office, sent a memo denying that there were “targets” for removing illegal migrants last Wednesday when the furore reached a critical moment.

Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Sajid Javid and his wife Laura
Rex Features

Based on his advice, the Home Office prepared a statement that “there are no removal targets for immigration enforcement officers, regional or national”. Ms Rudd was mortally wounded two days later when a six-page memo emerged, written by Mr Ind, which referred to a target for “achieving 12,800 enforced returns in 2017/18”.

The Home Secretary’s resignation, just days before the local elections, was the fourth departure surrounded by controversy from Mrs May’s Cabinet in just six months.

It came before a crunch Cabinet-level meeting on Wednesday to seek to bridge splits over Brexit with ministers divided on the UK’s future customs relationship with the EU.

In a sign of the turmoil at the heart of Government, Brexit Secretary David Davis was reported to be at loggerheads with Mrs May’s Brexit chief adviser, Olly Robbins who previously worked for him. The Government also faced the threat of another defeat in the Lords as peers sought to guarantee that Parliament could have a final say on any deal struck with Brussels.

Downing Street faced growing questions over why it did not intervene when Ms Rudd incorrectly denied on Wednesday that there were removal targets. The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said Mrs May knew about targets at the Home Office when she was Home Secretary.

But he added: “The Prime Minister knew what was happening in the Home Office in her time. That is very different from saying that the Prime Minister is aware of what is happening in the Home Office now. From the moment she left the Home Office, she would no longer have received that sort of operational update.”

He denied that a letter, sent by Ms Rudd to the Prime Minister and which became public recently, included operational targets. He said it merely set out an “aim over a non-specific period” — of a few years — to remove more illegal immigrants.

Mrs May was at home when Ms Rudd called early evening to say she was resigning. In her letter, accepting Ms Rudd’s resignation, she made clear she understood the difficulties running such a large department. “As a former Home Secretary myself, I appreciate the particular demands of that Great Office of State,” she said.

Praising Ms Rudd for her leadership of the Home Office, she added that she understood why the Home Secretary had made her decision and taken “responsibility for inadvertently misleading” the Commons home affairs committee over local removal targets. Pressure had been building on Ms Rudd ever since the emergence of the “appalling” treatment of Caribbean immigrants to the UK between the Forties and Seventies. The row grew with the suggestion that removal targets had led officials to harshly treat individuals who could not provide documents to prove they had the right to live in Britain.

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