LONDON: British Prime Minister Theresa May appointed a former banker of South Asian origin as interior minister on Monday, trying to draw a line under an immigration scandal threatening her authority as she negotiates Brexit.
Sajid Javid, the son of immigrants from Pakistan, replaces Amber Rudd, who quit as Home Secretary after acknowledging she had “inadvertently misled” parliament by denying the government had targets for the number of illegal migrants Britain deports.
British ministers have struggled for two weeks to explain why some descendants of the so-called “Windrush generation”, invited to Britain from its former colonies to plug labour shortfalls between 1948 and 1971, were denied basic rights.
But in trying to solve one problem, May risked creating another by changing the balance of views in her top team on plans to leave the European Union. Rudd opposed Brexit but Javid, a lukewarm “remainer”, has said that after the referendum, “in some ways, we are all Brexiteers now”.
The scandal has weighed on May, who, after winning support for tough responses on Russia and Syria, has lost a close ally and must now try to overcome rifts in her Conservative Party over Brexit, especially on future customs arrangements with the European Union.
Javid, the first lawmaker from Britain’s Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic community to become interior minister, tried before his appointment to address public anger over the scandal by saying his own family could have been caught up in it.
“We are going to have a strategy in place ... about making sure that we have an immigration policy that is fair, it treats people with respect and with decency, and that will be one of my most urgent tasks,” Javid told Sky News on Monday.
A spokesman for May said Javid, who had been minister for housing, communities and local government, “has proved his drive, his ambition and determi-nation to get to grips with difficult subjects, and these are abilities which will all be required at the Home Office”.
May will hope Javid’s appointment deflects public anger over a problem the opposition Labour Party says is at least partly her fault because she spent six years as home secretary.
Out campaigning on Monday, May defended the government’s use of targets to tackle illegal immigration and declined to answer directly when asked whether she should take the blame for what opposition lawmakers call a toxic culture at the Home Office.
BREXIT BALANCE: While aimed at ending the scandal, Javid’s appointment may also signal a shift on Brexit.
Rudd was one of the most outspokenly pro-EU members of May’s cabinet and could now join other Conservative lawmakers voting in favour of keeping the closest possible ties with the bloc.
Javid’s position is less clear. An admirer of late prime minister Margaret Thatcher, he strongly supports free markets.
— Reuters
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
