What kind of home secretary will Sajid Javid make?

Former housing secretary is unexpected
choice given previous clashes with Theresa May

In Depth

 The Prime Minister announced her choice this morning as
she struggled to cope with the fallout from Amber Rudd’s decision
to step down from the role over the Windrush migrant scandal. “As
resignations go, this one’s a biggie,” says Politico’s Jack Blanchard.

At a stroke, the Prime Minister “lost her fourth Cabinet
minister to scandal in six months, one of her few genuine allies
around the Cabinet table and her own human shield from the Windrush
fiasco”, Blanchard says.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Jane Merrick says Rudd’s
departure, announced last night, leaves May badly exposed. “Rudd’s
resignation is a blow for the Remain-supporting Conservatives who
saw her as a key ally for their cause inside Cabinet, as well as a
potential future leader,” according to Merrick.

“But, more importantly, it is a setback for the Prime Minister,
who has now lost her firewall over the Windrush fiasco and the
controversy over the ‘hostile environment’ policy towards illegal
immigrants. As the architect of that policy… the Prime Minister
is now at the front line of the row.”

In Remain supporter Javid, May has kept the balance of the
Cabinet, “but only just”, says The Times’s Matt Chorley.

Dealing with the Windrush scandal, as well as the underlying
problems around immigration, will be top of Javid’s to-do list.

“The most urgent task I have is to help those British citizens
who came from the Caribbean, the so-called Windrush generation, and
make sure they are all treated with the decency and the fairness
they deserve,” he said following his appointment.

Javid has a lot of experience in government, having served
previously as Treasury minister and as equalities minister. He is
also the first Asian MP to become home secretary.

“His appointment is striking”, says The Spectator’s James Forsyth, as “he and May
have clashed repeatedly in the past”.

“The promotion of this independent-minded individual suggests
that May is now prepared to accept some fresh thinking in the Home
Office,” Forsyth continues. “This is desperately needed.”

“Not often we get to say this, but Theresa May has made the
right choice,” agrees the Financial Times’ Sebastian Payne in a
tweet. “Britain’s first BAME home secretary – a
liberal conservative who can reset immigration policy. If the Prime
Minister will allow him.” 

So what do we know about Sajid Javid?

He’s a ‘uniting figure’

Talking to The Sunday Telegraph this weekend, Javid
said that upon first hearing about the Windrush scandal, he
thought: “That could be my mum… my dad… my uncle… it could be
me.”

The interview “could emerge as well timed”,
predicts The Guardian’s Andrew Sparrow, particularly
considering Rudd’s belief, expressed before she stepped down, that
the Home Office had “lost sight of the individual”.

Javid is “seen as a uniting figure”, says The Independent’s Shehab Khan, and he has
issued a plea to ethnic minorities to look at the Government’s
efforts to “put things right”.

But others argue that Javid’s promotion is a sign of May’s
weakness. Javid’s “approach to migration is instinctively liberal –
or, to put it more accurately, business-friendly”, in contrast to
that of the PM, says Conservative Home’s Paul Goodman.

He’s a Remain-voting Eurosceptic

Where Rudd’s role within the Brexit war-cabinet was that of the
liberal Remainer, the same cannot be said for Javid’s views.

In 2016, Javid showed loyalty to then PM David Cameron by
backing Remain in the EU referendum. “But painted by many
colleagues as a Eurosceptic, his decision to fall in line with
Downing Street dented his reputation with many of his previous
supporters,” says HuffPost’s Owen Bennett.

On the big customs debate, which will dominate this week’s
Brexit conversations, Javid “is a strong proponent of the need for
the UK to have its own independent, trade policy after Brexit”,
says The Spectator’s Forsyth.

But his “could be the vote that tips it away from Theresa May’s
position”, says Channel 4 News politics
correspondent Gary Gibbon.

Javid has had his eye on the top job

Various pundits and commentators “have repeatedly singled him
out as a man to watch, something clearly not lost on Javid
himself”, says HuffPost’s Bennett. Speaking at a Westminster press
gallery lunch in February 2015, Javid joked: “I have today agreed
to let my name go forward for the leadership… oops, wrong
speech.”

But his oratory skills have let him down over the years, says
The Guardian’s Sparrow. In fact, “the Maybot had nothing on the
Javidbot”.

“Over recent years his public performances have loosened up a
bit, but the leadership talk started to fade as he proved himself
to be a competent cabinet minister, but not an outstanding
one.”