“The new home secretary, Sajid Javid, the first BAME holder of one of the great offices of state, will find an inbox brimming not just with the backlash over the Windrush scandal, but with arguments to come over policing cuts and rising knife crime as well as a difficult counter-terror climate. Born in Rochdale in 1969, the former investment banker and Margaret Thatcher devotee, is on the right of the Conservative party. His appointment will give him a voice on the powerful cabinet subcommittee on Brexit and will keep the balance of EU leavers and remainers in the top offices, but he can only be categorised as a remainer in the most technical sense. Javid backed remain in the referendum, probably under pressure from David Cameron, saying it was with a “heavy heart and no enthusiasm”. He has since swung firmly behind leavers in the cabinet.” – Guardian
>Yesterday: ToryDiary: Javid. Muslim, Brexit adaptee, comeback kid – and not a May protege. Her Home Office era is over.
“Sajid Javid has warned the Home Office to expect an overhaul after the Windrush scandal as he ditches the policy of creating a “hostile environment” for illegal immigrants and seeks to break free from Theresa May’s legacy. Mr Javid, who replaced Amber Rudd as home secretary yesterday, opened the door to the return of appeals and legal aid for those facing deportation. The first non-white holder of a great office of state said that he would do “whatever I can” to rectify the treatment of Caribbean-born Britons caught up in a clampdown started by Mrs May when she was home secretary.” – The Times
>Yesterday:
“The first thing I would do if I were Sajid Javid, the new Home Secretary, is make sure I have the people around me to help get an iron grip on the Home Office. It is essential in any big job in government to have special advisers, private secretaries and a permanent secretary of the whole department who spot problems and detect a crisis in the making even when their boss is busy with daily events. Whatever Amber Rudd did, she does not appear to have been well served by such people. Her successor needs to act with cold ruthlessness in ensuring the excellence and loyalty of the people around him – nothing else will guarantee that the Home Office is doing what he wants it to do and that he knows what it is doing.” – Daily Telegraph
Editorial:
Comment:
“Theresa May has attempted to distance herself from the row over the Home Office’s enforced removals targets that has already claimed the scalp of one of her most senior ministers, Amber Rudd. The prime minister tried to draw a line under the affair by arguing that Rudd had only resigned over a single error, while separating the issue from the wider scandal over the Windrush generation. She again declined to place the blame for the debacle, which has caught up thousands of people and is widely regarded as a result of her own “hostile environment” strategy, on individual ministers or civil servants at her former department.” – Guardian
Comment:
>Today: ToryDiary: Our monthly survey is out. What should May’s Brexit customs policy be? Who’s to blame for Home Office fiascos? Plus: the Lords’ future
“James Brokenshire has been appointed as the Communities Secretary just three months after undergoing life-saving surgery to treat his lung cancer. He will take up the reigns at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government today following the departure of Sajid Javid, who has been made Home Secretary following the shock resignation of Amber Rudd on Sunday evening. The surprise reshuffle comes just hours after Ms Rudd quit in the wake of the Windrush scandal, following the publication of another leaked letter appearing to show that she misled Parliament over the existence of targets to deport illegal immigrants.” – Daily Telegraph
>Yesterday: MPs etc: Brokenshire, the May loyalist, returns to grapple with the housing challenge
“The government has suffered a heavy defeat on a crucial Lords vote that could pave the way for parliament to send ministers back to the Brussels negotiations if MPs vote down Theresa May’s Brexit deal. Labour said the amendment, which is the seventh Lords defeat for the government on the EU withdrawal bill, would effectively prevent Britain crashing out of the EU with no deal. The cross-party amendment was supported by 19 Tory rebels, winning by a majority of 91. Ministers have previously warned that should parliament vote down the deal agreed by negotiators, Britain would leave the bloc with no agreement. The amendment, led by former Tory minister Douglas Hogg, would change that scenario, meaning parliament could alter it and ask the government to reopen EU talks.” – Guardian
Comment:
“Theresa May is considering signing up Britain to a catch-all agreement with Brussels that Brexiteers fear will amount to “EU Mark II”. Mrs May has told ministers that the UK could “potentially” accept an association agreement with the EU, which critics say would make Britain a “rule taker” from Europe. Philip Hammond, the Chancellor, and David Davis, the Brexit Secretary, are also open to the idea, which was first raised at a meeting of the Cabinet’s Brexit sub-committee last week. Mr Hammond said it would “save time” to sign up to something the EU is already familiar with, while Mr Davis also said such an arrangement could work.” – Daily Telegraph
>Today: Henry Newman’s column: No more delays, Prime Minister – it’s time to make a decision on customs
>Yesterday: Bernard Jenkin in Comment: The ‘new customs partnership’ idea should be dead in the water – it is the opposite of taking back control
More Brexit
Comment:
“The planned visit of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, to the United Kingdom in July is well-timed and of great importance. By then the European Union Withdrawal Bill ought to have passed into law and a mere three months of negotiations are scheduled to settle the terms of our departure. Once we have left our alliance with the EU, the United States will be even more central to our foreign policy than it currently is, especially as we are unlikely to be flavour of the month with the EU after our departure. It is our national good fortune that the president with whom we will develop this new arrangement is Mr Trump. His election depended upon similar factors to those that led to Brexit.” – The Times
More Conservatives
And Labour
“Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Iran of continuing to hide and expand its nuclear weapons knowhow after a 2015 agreement with global powers, presenting what the Israeli prime minister claimed was “new and conclusive proof” of violations. Netanyahu presented a series of slides and photographs of documents which he were drawn from a half-ton cache obtained by Israeli intelligence “a few weeks ago.” The New York Times reported that Mossad had broken into a warehouse in January and smuggled them to Israel the same night. The report did not say how such a large amount of documentation was transported in secret. However, key documents highlighted by Netanyahu had previously been seen by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), as early as 2005 and made public by the agency in 2011.” – Guardian