Sajid Javid replaces Amber Rudd as Home Secretary

pulse

April 30, 2018 10:31 AM

Amber Rudd was forced to resign on Sunday evening as the fallout from the Windrush scandal continued.

Sajid Javid replaces Amber Rudd as Home Secretary.
Rudd resigned on Sunday evening after misleading MPs about deportation targets and pressure over the Windrush scandal.
Javid — who backed Remain in the EU referendum — has served as Communities Secretary since July 2016 when Theresa May became prime minister.

LONDON — Sajid Javid has replaced Amber Rudd as Home Secretary, Downing Street has confirmed.

Rudd was forced to resign on Sunday evening

Javid is a former managing director at Deutsche Bank, and a widely respected figure within the party who has long been tipped for promotion. He campaigned for Remain in the EU referendum but is seen as relatively Eurosceptic.

Very sad that Amber is leav... @ Sajid Javid

Downing Street said it had accepted Rudd's resignation on Sunday following a number of leaks regarding alleged deportation targets used by the Home Office under her leadership.

Rudd last week told the Home Affairs Select Committee this week that the Home Office did not have targets for removals. She then backtracked and claimed the department had local targets, but said she was unaware of them.

However, on Sunday the Guardian published a letter Rudd sent to May last year in which she boasted about "ambitious but deliverable" targets for deporting illegal immigrants, suggesting she did know about the policy.

And on Friday the Guardian leaked a memo which was sent to Rudd saying that the department had "a target of achieving 12,800 enforced returns in 2017-18," adding that "we have exceeded our target of assisted returns."

The issue of deportations has become particularly toxic because of the Windrush scandal, which erupted following reports that numerous Caribbean-born UK immigrants had been harassed, threatened with deportation, and made destitute despite being legally resident in Britain.

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