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Prime Minister Theresa May has picked Sajid Javid, a Pakistani origin Briton, as the Home Secretary after his predecessor Ms. Amber Rudd resigned following the Windrush immigration scandal.
Javid, a former Communities Secretary, is the first minority politician of Pakistani origin to hold one of Britain’s highest positions.
Ms. Rudd resigned late on Sunday, saying she had “inadvertently” misled MPs about whether the government had deportation targets.”
A report in The Guardian newspaper revealed that some people who came to the U.K. from the Caribbean after World War II had recently been refused medical care in Britain or threatened with deportation. The report rocked the national political scene with widespread criticism of the policy change as being immoral and wrong since the targeted people who had been granted British citizenship but were being asked to reproduce documents from decades before.
Sajid Javid, whose parents came from Pakistan, is among those who have expressed anger at the treatment of those British citizens,
“That could be me,” Javid told the Sunday Telegraph:
Javid’s elevation to the position of Home Secretary in the Conservative Prime Minister’s cabinet will have important symbolic value, as the appointment of the 48-year-old politician from a minority community might mitigate some of the anger sweeping the political scene after Windrush scandal.
“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 said.
Sajid Javid is the son of a Pakistani bus driver who arrived in Britain in 1961 with £1 in his pocket.
He was a senior investment banker at the Deutsche Bank before becoming an MP in 2010. Javid has served in a variety of cabinet positions as Treasury Minister in 2013, Culture Secretary in 2014, Business Secretary in 2015 and Communities Secretary in 2016.
