Amber Rudd resigns - as it happened: Sajid Javid appointed new home secretary
Home secretary steps down after increasing pressure over handling of Windrush scandal
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Sajid Javid has made his debut in Parliament as the new home secretary following the resignation of Amber Rudd.
As he arrived at the Home Office to take up new his job earlier in the day, Mr Javid vowed to make sure people caught up in the Windrush scandal are treated with “decency and fairness”.
Ms Rudd became the fifth departure from the cabinet since last year’s snap general election after admitting she had “inadvertently” misled MPs over the existence of targets for removing illegal immigrants.
The MP for Hastings and Rye stepped down on Sunday evening, a day before she was due to make a statement in the House of Commons on the targets and illegal migration, as she faced increasing pressure over the handling of the Windrush fiasco.
Windrush generation: threat of deportation from UK
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The urgent question has now started, with Sajid Javid, the new home secretary, up on his feet. He says learning about the Windrush generation has affected him deeply as a second generation migrant. Next to him on the frontbench are David Lidington, the Cabinet Office minister, and Boris Johnson, the Foreign Secretary.
He wishes Amber Rudd the best after her resignation late last night.
'I would like to make one thing absolutely clear: we will do right by the Windrush Generation," he says.
Iain Duncan Smith, the Conservative MP, welcomes Javid to his position.
He says it is also right to pursue those who are here illegally. He asks to sort out the Windrush generation and also continue this.
Joanna Cherry from the SNP says a "change of personnel" at the Home Office won't help the Windrush generation.
Referring to his own background, Mr Javid said: "Like the Caribbean Windrush generation, my parents came to this country from the Commonwealth in the 1960s.
"They too came to help rebuild this country and offer all that they had.
"So when I heard that people who were long-standing pillars of their community were being impacted for simply not having the right documents to prove their legal status in the UK, I thought that it could be my mum, my brother, my uncle or even me.
"That's why I am so personally committed to and invested in resolving the difficulties faced by the people of the Windrush generation who have built their lives here and contributed so much."
Javid he says was to commit to a "fair" and "humane" immigration.
He says the Windrush generation taskforce has received 6,000 calls. Over 100 cases already been successfully resolved.
Yvette Cooper, the chair of the home affairs select committee, asks for the government to reinstate legal aid for such cases.
Sajid Javid kicks off his time in the Home Office by completely dismissing the phrase "hostile environment", says the terminology is incorrect, unhelpful, and fails to represent our values as a country.
Shadow home secretary Diane Abbott called on Mr Javid to reinstate protections for Commonwealth citizens.
She said Theresa May, as home secretary, introduced the 2014 Immigration Act which "removed from Commonwealth citizens the protections of deportation that they had".
"At the very least, will the new Home Secretary commit to reinstating the protection for Commonwealth citizens that was removed by the current Prime Minister in 2014?"
And she said: "The Windrush generation was my parents' generation. I believe - and most British people believe - that they have been treated appallingly.
"And he will be judged not on the statements he makes this afternoon: he will be judged on what he does to put the situation right and get justice for the Windrush generation."
Government defeated (again) in the Lords by 335 to 244 votes on an amendment that hands power to MPs to decide next steps if Brexit deal rejected later this year.
Mr Javid said he was "angry too", after Ms Abbott asked if he was aware how "frightened and angry the Windrush generation and their families are".
He went on to say: "Like her, I am also a second generation migrant and I know that she shares that anger and she should respect that other people do - she doesn't have a monopoly on that."
On Ms Abbott's call for protections to be reinstated, Mr Javid said: "No such protections have been removed.
"People who arrived pre-1973 - they have the absolute right to be here and that has not changed."
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