LONDON - British Prime Minister Theresa May appointed a former banker of South Asian origin as interior minister on Monday, trying to draw a line under an immigration scandal threatening her authority as she negotiates Brexit.
SajidJavid, the son of immigrants from Pakistan, replaces Amber Rudd, who quit as Home Secretary after acknowledging she had “inadvertently misled” parliament by denying the government had targets for the number of illegal migrants Britain deports.
British ministers have struggled for two weeks to explain why some descendants of the so-called “Windrush generation”, invited to Britain from its former colonies to plug labor shortfalls between 1948 and 1971, were denied basic rights.
Javid, the first lawmaker from Britain’s Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic community to become interior minister, tried before his appointment to address public anger over the scandal by saying his own family could have been caught up in it.
“We are going to have a strategy in place ... about making sure that we have an immigration policy that is fair, it treats people with respect and with decency, and that will be one of my most urgent tasks,” Javid told Sky News on Monday.
A spokesman for May said Javid, who had been minister for housing, communities and local government, “is one of the most experienced ministers around the cabinet table”.
“At Housing, he has proved his drive, his ambition and determination to get to grips with difficult subjects, and these are abilities which will all be required at the Home Office.”
May will hope Javid’s appointment deflects public anger over a problem the opposition Labour Party says is at least partly her fault because she spent six years as home secretary.  (Reuters)