Theresa May denies Rudd resigned over PM's own hostile environment policy - Politics live

James Brokenshire is housing secretary and Penny Mordaunt takes women and equalities brief as Theresa May faces pressure over immigration targets

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Sajid Javid, the new home secretary. Photograph: Wiktor Szymanowicz / Barcroft Images

Andrew Sparrow (now); Jamie Grierson and Martin Farrer (earlier)

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1.26pm BST 13:26

This is from HuffPost’s Paul Waugh.

Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh)
Fascinating fact: new Home Secretary @sajidjavid's younger brother Bas is a Chief Superintendent in the West Midlands Police. Suspect they'll keep operational matters operational...
April 30, 2018

1.23pm BST 13:23

Speaker grants urgent question on Windrush scandal

John Bercow, the speaker, has granted an urgent question on Windrush.

Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, wants Theresa May to respond. It is not clear yet whether she will get May, or another minister.

Labour Whips (@labourwhips)
2 urgent questions: 1. @HackneyAbbott asking @theresa_may if she will make a statement on the Government’s handling of the Windrush scandal @RLong_Bailey asking @GregClarkMP if he will make a statement on the proposed merger of Sainsbury’s and Asda
April 30, 2018

1.05pm BST 13:05

Corbyn says Rudd's resignation means May has lost her 'human shield'

Peter Walker

Jeremy Corbyn has recorded a clip for broadcasters about Amber Rudd’s resignation and Sajid Javid’s appointment. Corbyn, of course, called for Rudd’s resignation at PMQs last week. Here are the main points.

Corbyn said May had lost her “human shield” and that she should now reflect on her own role in the Windrush scandal. Asked about May’s position, he said:

I think [May] should reflect on the hostile environment that she created as home secretary, and the fact that she dismissed in terms warnings given to her by Diane Abbott and others during the debates about the 2014 Act, in which they said, this will affect the Windrush generation.

Amber Rudd has been the human shield for Theresa May, and she’s now gone. Theresa May now has questions to answer – from the liaison committee or wherever else those questions are raised – about what she actually did as home secretary and what she said.

He said Rudd was right to resign.

[Rudd] had to resign because, quite clearly, what she had been telling us was not accurate and not correct, and she had to go as a result of that.

He said Javid should dismantle the hostile environment policy. Asked if he had confidence in Javid, he said:

I’ll have confidence if he makes it very, very clear that he will deal with the issues that Amber Rudd failed to deal with, that he will deal with the issue of the hostile environment created by her and her predecessor as home secretary, now the prime minister, and that he will guarantee, absolutely, security and safety for the Windrush generation, who have contributed so much to our country and are now being put through the most appalling trauma.

12.55pm BST 12:55

According to the Evening Standard, Hugh Ind, director general of Immigration Enforcement at the Home Office, emailed Amber Rudd’s team before and during the home affairs committee last week to say there were no removal targets. “This email was the basis of Rudd’s confusion,” says the Standard. George Osborne, the Standard editor, former Conservative chancellor and a supporter of Rudd’s, says that Rudd was misled and that this is “extraordinary”.

George Osborne (@George_Osborne)
This is pretty extraordinary: The Londoner @EveningStandard has seen the completely misleading emails Amber Rudd was getting from her civil servants on targets. Of course Ministers are accountable - and she has resigned. But what about these officials? https://t.co/rdOuUzVVKb
April 30, 2018

12.39pm BST 12:39

May admits she knew Home Office had targets for removing illegal immigrants.

Here is more from the clip that Theresa May recorded for Sky News.

May rejected the suggestion that Amber Rudd resigned over policy decisions that were May’s responsibility. When it was put to her that she personally should be taking responsibility for the Home Office’s “hostile environment” strategy, May said:

Amber Rudd was very clear about the reasons why she has resigned – that was because of information she gave to the House of Commons which was not correct.

If you look at what we’re doing as a government, and have been doing over the years as a government, what we are doing is responding to the need that people see for a government to deal with illegal immigration. That’s exactly what we are doing.

Now, we have seen the Windrush generation being caught up in way that has caused anxiety among that generation. That’s why we have set up a unit that is helping those people to get the documents that they need.

They are British, they are part of us. But we deal with that, we make sure that people are given the reassurance that they need, but we also need to ensure that we’re dealing with illegal immigration.

This is yet another example of May trying to turn the Windrush scandal into a public argument about illegal immigration. The counter argument is that policies intended to target illegal immigrants have ended up impacting on legal immigrants too.

She confirmed that she knew that the Home Office had targets for the removal of illegal immigrants. Asked if she knew about the targets, she replied:

When I was home secretary, yes, there were targets in terms of removing people from the country, who were here illegally.

There is an argument that this shows May was complicit in Amber Rudd misleading the House of Commons when she gave evidence to the home affairs committee on Wednesday afternoon. But given that May may have had other things to do on Wednesday afternoon other than monitor the committee hearing minute by minute, and given that Rudd went to the Commons first thing on Thursday morning to correct what she had said, it may be hard to make this charge stick. (If May herself were on record denying the existence of targets, that would be a different matter.)

She paid tribute to Rudd. Saying she was “very sorry” at Rudd’s departure, she said:

I think she can look back with pride on her time as home secretary.

Updated at 1.03pm BST

12.20pm BST 12:20

Pippa Crerar

No 10 confirmed at its daily briefing for political reporters that the prime minister spoke to Amber Rudd early on Sunday evening from her constituency home.

But her official spokesman quashed rumours that Rudd may have tried to quit on Friday, during the eight-hour hiatus between the Guardian approaching the Home Office with news of its latest leak and the former home secretary’s defiant tweets later that night.

Downing Street was in full “Operation Save May” mode, with her spokesman stressing that she would not have been expected to be across the detail of Home Office targets once she had left the department.

“The prime minister was aware when she was in office as home secretary of targets, but what the prime minister would have ceased to receive when she moved over to Downing Street was that sort of operational detail,” he said.

There were, unsurprisingly, warm words from No 10 about the new home secretary.

Sajid Javid is one of the most experienced ministers around the cabinet table. At housing he has proved his drive, his ambition and his determination to get to grips with difficult subjects and these are abilities that will be required at the home office.

It was also revealed that when May spoke to Javid this morning, they did discuss the Windrush scandal. “Providing support and resolving the issues that have been raised by Windrush are an absolute priority for the government,” her spokesman said.

But for those hoping that the whole affair might prompt a broader rethink of the government policy on immigration, No 10 was clear that she would stay the course.

10 Downing Street Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images

Updated at 12.49pm BST

12.12pm BST 12:12

Theresa May rejects suggestion Rudd resigned over May's own policy decisions

Sky News has just broadcast a clip with Theresa May.

May started by paying tribute to Amber Rudd, echoing some of the things she said in her letter to Rudd last night.

Asked about the Home Office targets for the removal of illegal immigrants, May said:

Yes, there were targets in terms of removing people from the country who are here illegally.

Q: Shouldn’t you be taking personal responsibility?

May says Rudd resigned because of information she gave to the House of Commons that was not correct.

She says the government is responding to people’s concerns about illegal immigration.

But it is also addressing the problems faced by Windrush generation migrants.

May rejects suggestion Rudd resigned over May’s own policy decisions.

12.05pm BST 12:05

And Channel 4 News’ Gary Gibbon has a good blog on Javid’s appointment too. He thinks Javid’s arrival in the Home Office could tip the balance against the “customs partnership” proposal when the cabinet’s key Brexit decision making body - the EU exit and trade (strategy and negotiations) sub committee, or EUXT (SN) as it’s known - meets on Wednesday. Put simply, that could be awkward for Theresa May.

There is quite a lot of Brexit news around today. Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, is in Ireland, and there are some important votes on the EU withdrawal bill in the Lords. I will be turning to those soon.

11.56am BST 11:56

In a good article for ConservativeHome, Paul Goodman argues that the appointment of Sajid Javid is a sign of Theresa May’s weakness. Here’s an extract, but do read the whole thing.

Sajid Javid is also a remainer – but there the resemblance ends. His approach to migration is instinctively liberal – or, to put it more accurately, business-friendly. He was part of the loose alliance of ministers who, when George Osborne was chancellor, wanted students to be taken out of the immigration figures.

Furthermore, he is not a May partisan. Javid is a former Osborne protege, was a supporter of Stephen Crabb’s leadership bid, and was not a shoo-in to be kept on by her in cabinet after she became prime minister. But Downing Street would have been nervous of sacking the only Muslim in cabinet, and so Javid was sent to housing, in the hope that his brains and energy would make an impact. As indeed they did: he was soon clashing with May over policy; he wanted a less cautious approach. After last summer’s election, he became bolder and more outspoken – leading the charge in cabinet, according to Tim Shipman, for the defenestration of Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill as chiefs of staff.

His appointment can thus only be read as a sign of prime ministerial weakness rather than strength. Javid will have clocked the central facts of Rudd’s tenure at the Home Office: that she favoured a more liberal immigration policy, and was therefore at odds with Theresa May’s legacy…but loyally shouldered the burden and carried it on, while making it known now and again that she didn’t really want to. This position was inherently problematic. It was ultimately made fatal by Rudd’s lack of strategic direction and attention to detail.

11.51am BST 11:51

From the FT’s Jim Pickard

Jim Pickard (@PickardJE)
In case you're wondering if Javid shares Rudd's pro-EU sentiment, here's what he said on eve of referendum: “With a heavy heart and no enthusiasm, I shall be voting for the UK to remain a member of the European Union.” https://t.co/hF3YpGa3E4
April 30, 2018

11.50am BST 11:50

This is from ITV’s Paul Brand.

Paul Brand (@PaulBrandITV)
Should hear from PM fairly soon on Rudd’s resignation...
April 30, 2018

11.48am BST 11:48

In an interview with Sky News, Sajid Javid also stressed that his overall priority as home secretary was keeping people safe.

My first priority is to make sure the Home Office does all it can to keep British people safe. That is a huge responsibility, something I take very, very seriously.

Asked if he would abandon the “hostile environment” strategy (as Labour is demanding - see 11.22am), Javid said that he wanted immigration policy to be fair and decent, but that this was what Amber Rudd was also proposing.

When he was asked what his parents would feel about his promotion, and his becoming the first BAME person to hold one of the great offices of state (traditionally defined as PM, chancellor, foreign secretary and home secretary), he said any parent would be really pleased to see their child become home secretary.

Updated at 12.14pm BST

11.32am BST 11:32

Javid says making sure Windrush migrants treated 'with decency' his most urgent task as home secretary

Sajid Javid has been giving brief interviews to broadcasters.

He said his most urgent task was ensuring Windrush migrants get treated with decency.

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.

Updated at 12.14pm BST

11.22am BST 11:22

Labour says Javid must end 'hostile environment' policy

Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, has challenged Sajid Javid to end the policy of creating a “hostile environment” for immigrants. The government says the intention was only ever to create a “hostile environment” for illegal immigrants, but Abbott did not make that distinction in her statement. (The Labour case is that legal migrants are also affected by policy directed at illegal migrants.) Abbott said:

The change in home secretary will mean nothing unless Theresa May’s ‘hostile environment’ policy is finally brought to an end.

Sajid Javid’s first priority must be ending this ‘hostile environment’ policy. As the Windrush scandal has proven, and as some of us warned the government four years ago, this policy has ripped lives apart, including the lives of British nationals and others who have the right to be here.

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.

Updated at 11.27am BST

11.13am BST 11:13

Who is Sajid Javid? A round-up of some of the best profiles

At one point Sajid Javid was widely seen as a future prime minister. After a highly successful career in the City, he was elected MP for Bromsgrove in 2010 and within four years he was in the cabinet, as culture secretary. Javid got there despite starting life as the son of a Pakistani immigrant bus driver. “You wait for an immigrant bus driver’s son to turn up in politics, and then two turn up at once,” he once joked about his Labour contemporary, Sadiq Khan. Khan’s background probably helped broaden his appeal when he ran for election as mayor of London. But in the Conservative parliamentary party people with lived experience of working-class life, and BME disadvantage, are much rarer and Javid’s supporters argued that he had a life story that would be a huge asset in a leadership contest.

And Javid is ambitious. But, as he hit cabinet rank, an obvious problem in the ‘Javid for leader’ project became apparent. He was a dreadfully wooden speaker. Hopeless, 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. After culture he seemed more at home as business secretary, but when Theresa May became prime minister she shunted him into communities, a de facto demotion. In this post he failed to persuade Downing Street to back some of his more radical ideas on housebuilding, and his handling of the Grenfell Tower disaster has been criticised as ineffectual.

But in politics prospects can change very quickly and now he has the chance to prove himself in one of the biggest jobs in government - and one that he wanted. (See 9.59am.)

Here are four interviews or profiles that help to explain who he is, with extracts.

From an Andrew Rawnsley Observer column from 2014

He was a teenage Thatcherite, influenced by and sharing his father’s disgust with the Winter of Discontent and increasingly enthralled by the woman whom he calls “the greatest Conservative prime minister ever”. A portrait of the lady in blue hangs on his office wall. He is a self-described Thatcherite first and a Conservative second. He sends his children to private schools. He has a taste for Havana cigars. In common with many of Thatcher’s children of his Tory generation, he is as dry as dust on economic issues and well to the right on most other subjects.

This makes his a disorientating story for many on the left because it confounds their expectations of how someone from that background ought to think and where they should end up. Rather than acknowledge that there is any cause for celebration in a self-made Asian man with a working-class background reaching the cabinet, Labour MPs have jeered at him for being rich and not being a woman.

From a Robert Booth profile for the Guardian in 2014

During 20 years in banking, Javid became rich. According to unconfirmed reports, he made up to £3m a year through the years of boom and bust and he now owns a £4m home in Fulham and another worth £2m in Chelsea. He sends his children to private schools.

“I readily admit that being seen as an investment banker was not the most useful thing on the campaign trail,” he said in his maiden speech to parliament. “But it helped prepare me for a profession not well liked by the general public.”

From an Andrew Gimson profile for ConservativeHome in 2015

As a student, Javid wanted Thatcher to be more radical. Along with Tim Montgomerie, who would go on to found ConHome, he set up the Exeter Enterprise Forum, which extolled the virtues of the free market. But not all their time was devoted to campaigning: Montgomerie has “forgotten how many Star Trek movies we’ve watched together”.

In 1990, Javid went to the Conservative party conference and was thrown out of the Bournemouth International Centre for standing at the bottom of the escalators handing out leaflets opposing British membership of the Exchange Rate Mechanism, which he predicted, quite correctly, would be a disaster.

From a Fraser Nelson interview for the Spectator from 2017

Just before Christmas, Sajid Javid performed a ritual he has observed twice a year throughout his adult life: he read the courtroom scene in The Fountainhead. To Ayn Rand fans, it’s famous: the hero declares his principles and his willingness to be imprisoned for them if need be. As a student, Javid read the passage to his now-wife, but only once — she told him she’d have nothing more to do with him if he tried it again. ‘It’s about the power of the individual,’ he says. ‘About sticking up for your beliefs, against popular opinion. Being that individual that really believes in something and goes for it.’

This last anecdote may help to explain why Javid was in effect demoted when May became prime minister. At the time May’s most powerful adviser was Nick Timothy and he once wrote a column attacking “the libertarians who make it a mark of their ideological machismo that they quote Ayn Rand, whose heroic character Howard Roark boasted in The Fountainhead: ‘I recognise no obligations toward men except one: to respect their freedom.’ No wonder our opponents feel they can accuse us of callousness.” Timothy wrote that in March 2016, and it is hard not to think that he had Javid in mind when he did.

Updated at 11.21am BST

10.34am BST 10:34

Penny Mordaunt takes over Rudd's responsibilities as minister for women and equalities

And Penny Mordaunt, the international development secretary, will take on additional responsibilities in this mini reshuffle, Number 10 has announced. She will get the minister for women and equalities role that Amber Rudd combined with being home secretary.

UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet)
International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt MP @PennyMordaunt additionally becomes Minister for Women and Equalities
April 30, 2018

10.30am BST 10:30

James Brokenshire becomes housing and communities secretary

Number 10 has confirmed the appointment of James Brokenshire as housing secretary.

UK Prime Minister (@10DowningStreet)
James Brokenshire MP @JBrokenshire becomes Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government @mhclg
April 30, 2018

Brokenshire was Northern Ireland secretary until he resigned in January because he was receiving medical treatment to remove a tumour on his lung. But the operation was successful and he has been recovering well.