Sajid Javid becomes Home Secretary

The Prime Minister Theresa May announced this morning that Sajid Javid is to become the Home Secretary making him the highest ranking BME politician ever.

The decision to appoint Javid this most prestigious job by the Prime Minister will be in some way to reduce the heat and harm caused to BME communities by the Windrush scandal.

The new Home Secretary, whose parents emigrated from Pakistan in the 1960s, spoke at the weekend about his initial reaction to news of the treatment of Windrush-generation migrants. “I thought that could be my mum … my dad … my uncle … it could be me,” he said.

Javid, 48, said he recognised the scandal could cause concern among ethnic minority voters but issued a plea to those who were wavering to look at the government’s attempts to “put things right”.

Congratulations to Sajid Javid for his historical appointment, but it will take more than this to undo the deep sense of outrage that has caused so much misery to all those families caught up in the Windrush scandal.

Simon Woolley