How the left reacted to Amber Rudd's replacement as Home Secretary

After a week of turmoil, it all got too much for the Tories. Amber Rudd’s denial that there were ‘targets’ for the expulsion of immigrants – despite all evidence pointing to the contrary – became too much after the Windrush affair.

Last night she went – and this morning we heard who her replacement would be: Sajid Javid.

Much has been made of the fact that Javid is the ‘son of a Pakistani bus driver’ – less of the fact that he is a former investment banker.

And Javid faced calls to stand down as Business Secretary over his response to the steel crisis in 2015, which saw Tata Steel cut thousands of jobs, as the BBC reported.

Others pointed out that Javid ‘supported and voted for every element of Theresa May’s hostile environment’.

Here’s how the left have reacted to his appointment.

Diane Abbott MP, Labour’s Shadow Home Secretary, said the new Home Secretary cannot form another ‘human shield’ for Theresa May:

“The Prime Minister still has serious questions to answer about how this scandal was allowed to happen, and whether she knew Amber Rudd was misleading Parliament and the public last week. It’s time Theresa May finally takes responsibility for the crisis she created.”

Caroline Lucas MP, Green co-leader and spokesperson for Best for Britain, pointed to his dire record: 

“Sajid Javid comes into this job with a dreadful record on migration. Not only has he consistently supported Theresa May’s hostile environment, but he’s also consistently voted against a right to remain for EU nationals already in living in the UK.

She called for radical change at the Home Office:

“A new Home Secretary should start their term in office with a radical shakeup of the system. That means pledging to end indefinite detention, a review of the cruel charter flights which ship people out of the country without recourse to justice – and a Commission to look at wider policy with a view to ridding the immigration system of the inhumanity which pervades it.”

The reaction on Twitter has been unforgiving, too.

One tweet pointed to Javid’s background – after the new Home Secretary claimed he could have been one of the Windrush deportees in a Telegraph interview: 

Don’t be silly, Mr Javid. You were a managing director at an investment bank. Managing directors at investment banks don’t get deported; that only happens to black NHS employees.https://t.co/qFi4SuzNab

— David Osland (@David__Osland) April 28, 2018

Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesperson Ed Davey said:

“Today [Javid] walks into a department that has slashed police budgets and police numbers, presided over a rise in serious violent crime and cultivated an obsession with hardline policies on immigrants, personified by the Windrush scandal.

“He has to bring forward plans to invest more money in community policing, provide certainty to the Windrush generation and start providing answers on what future the 3 million EU citizens in this country would face under the Conservatives’ Brexit deal.”

The Scottish National Party also hit out, with Joanna Cherry QC MP, SNP Justice and Home Affairs spokesperson, saying:

“The blame for the Windrush scandal lies firmly at the door of Theresa May and her toxic Tory immigration policies. The Home Secretary must immediately undertake a root and branch review of UK immigration policy, scrap the UK government’s damaging arbitrary net migration targets, and end its inhumane hostile environment approach.

“The SNP has consistently called on the Tories and Labour to ditch their toxic anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies, and instead back a sensible, evidence-based immigration policy that recognises the huge benefits to our economy and society.”

Looks like Theresa May isn’t off the hook yet…

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