New home secretary Sajid Javid should develop an immigration system fit for 21st century, post-Brexit Britain
The appointment of Sajid Javid as home secretary may have been designed to stem the blood from a self-inflicted wound, but it could have far reaching consequences for the government – and for UK immigration policy.
Javid is a red-blooded free-marketeer, and marks a break with the metropolitan centrism of his predecessor, Amber Rudd, whose downfall propelled the former City banker into one of the great offices of state. His backstory is well known, but bears repeating.
Brought up in a small flat in Bristol above his father’s clothes shop, Javid is a robust Thatcherite whose values stem from his parents’ own story of hard work, sacrifice and determination. After a successful stint in finance, he entered politics and quickly joined team George Osborne. A portrait of Thatcher has hung on his office walls in no fewer than three Whitehall departments.
A eurosceptic whose heart probably backed Brexit, political pragmatism and an allegiance to the former chancellor saw him support Remain. Nevertheless, just last week he made perfectly clear that the UK must leave the customs union after Brexit, and must “be able to negotiate and sign our own trade deals.” A Remainer on paper, Javid is more likely to side in cabinet with Boris Johnson and Liam Fox than Philip Hammond.
But it is on immigration where he could really make his mark. As housing minister, he was known to be frustrated by Theresa May’s instinctive nimbyism, and was pushing for radical planning reform in a bid to turbocharge housebuilding. He looks set to come up against the PM again on the matter of immigration, where his instincts are much more liberal. Javid is understood to be against the inclusion of international students in net migration figures, and is likely to be in favour of a more outward-looking UK post-Brexit.
While the new home secretary’s priority will be clearing up the mess (and human tragedy) caused by the Windrush scandal, let us hope that he will use his good office to push for a more liberal immigration system as the UK leaves the EU.
Indeed, let us hope that he is able to draft a sensible, pragmatic and generous Immigration Bill fit for the twenty-first century, and fit for the UK’s future.