Sajid Javid replaces Amber Rudd as home secretary

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Sajid Javid

• Sajid Javid replaces Amber Rudd as Home Secretary.
• Rudd resigned over the Windrush scandal on Sunday evening.
• Javid had served as Communities secretary since July 2016, when Theresa May became prime minister.

LONDON - Sajid Javid will replace Amber Rudd as Home Secretary, Downing Street has confirmed.

Rudd was forced to resign on Sunday evening following a series of damaging leaks relating to the Windrush scandal which placed her ministerial record under heavy scrutiny.

Javid has served as MP for Bromsgrove in Worcestershire since 2010, and was Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government since Theresa May's appointment as Prime Minister in July 2016.

He 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.

He tweeted yesterday that he was "sad" about Rudd's departure. 

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.