A South Asian will head Britain’s Home Office for the first time as the government sought to contain an escalating crisis over its treatment of Commonwealth citizens and its tough immigration regime more widely

Sajid Javid MP, the son of a bus driver who emigrated to Britain from Pakistan, is a former banker and MD at Deutsche Bank, who became an MP in 2009 and a cabinet minister in 2014. He has been Britain’s Minister in charge of Communities and Local government since 2016, remaining in Cabinet despite his clear pro-Remain stance in the run up to the Brexit referendum. He is also the first South Asian to head one of the “Great Offices of state” the name given to the four most senior positions in the government (also including Prime Minister, head of the Treasury and head of the Foreign office).

Javid has divided opinion since entering politics. Whereas the no-nonsense approach he brought to government following his experience in banking won him plaudits early on, his handing of the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower tragedy has faced criticism. Last month he was forced to admit that the government would not be able to make their pledge to permanently rehouse all survivors of the fire, which killed 71 people, within the space of a year.

Mixed response

In March he unveiled a plan to boost English-language skills, arguing the country needed to tackle integration challenges “head on.” This also met with a mixed response because of the cuts that had previously been made to English-language programmes.

Nevertheless, Javid has on occasion presented an alternative perspective on Conservative politics. In an interview in The Telegraph on Sunday, Javid said that his first reaction on hearing about the “Windrush scandal” over the treatment of Commonwealth migrants currently engulfing the British government was that It could have been his own family impacted. “I thought that could be my mum…my..dad…my uncle…it could be me.”

The Evening Standard newspaper, edited by former Chancellor George Osborne, said that it was widely known that May would have fired Javid if she had won the May general election with an increased majority. “He was too independent-minded for her, and her now-departed advisers despised him,” it said.

Last year, Javid broke ranks with the muted criticism from British cabinet members when US President Donald Trump re-tweeted a message from the far right, Islamophobic group Britain First. “So POTUS has endorsed the views of a vile, hate-filled racist organisation that hates me and people like me. He is wrong and I refuse to let it go and say nothing.” However, according to his voting record in Parliament tracked by TheyWorkForYou.Com, he has always voted for the enforcement of stronger immigration rules, and a stricter asylum system.

“Sajid Javid’s first priority must be ending the ‘hostile environment’ policy and a new Home Secretary will mean nothing unless Theresa May’s ‘hostile environment’ policy is finally brought to an end,” said Labour’s Dianne Abbott.

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