Goodbye Ms. Rudd, Hello Mr. Javid

For those of us who enjoy the comings-and-goings of parliamentary politics, life is quite exciting on the western limits of Europe, in the UK to be precise. Amber Rudd, the Home Secretary, has been forced to resign. It was over her denial of the existence of secret quotas at the Home Office for the deportation of undocumented immigrants especially relating to the ‘Windrush’ generation of Caribbean immigrants. These particular immigrants from the British Crown Colonies had been invited to come to England between 1947 and 1971, when there were large labour shortages. Over the last decade the Home Office has had a policy of deporting undocumented immigrants. Ms Rudd ‘inadvertently misled’ a parliamentary committee hearing on the question of whether quotas existed for immigrants or not.

But questions remain. Why did she resign for just one mistake only just 22 months in the job? Was it that she was just fed up with the whole immigration issue and this was the last straw? Or was she hounded out as a known Remainer, by people who wanted her out of the Cabinet, which would create a majority in favour of the Brexiteers?

Perhaps her mistake was one of image. People saw her as a mini-Theresa May. During Mrs May’s six years at the Home Office a particular immigration culture had developed. Amber Rudd’s fault was that she didn’t challenge this political culture that was hostile to immigration and let the public know that she wasn’t just continuing Theresa May’s policies. Mrs May is now right to be fearful of a backlash against the Conservatives, who remain, in many people’s minds, ‘The Nasty Party’.

One case of the target in immigration deportation, among the many, is that of a former British soldier of fifteen years of service, who has been in the country since 1961. Although he has served in the army, he is a potential victim for deportation. The government refuses to make any of the documentation public. There are hundreds and hundreds of such cases.

But Amber Rudd’s resignation had other consequences as well; it released a vocal Remainer to the back benches. Amber Rudd is a formidable ‘unmuzzled Remainer’ who can do untold harm to the Brexit cause, if she so wishes. She may very well end up the leader or focal person for the Remainers on the backbenches, much to Mrs. May’s chagrin.

The new Home Secretary, Sajid Javid, is, like Amber Rudd, a former banker, but there the similarities stop. Columnists are writing that he was chosen because he is the son of a Pakistani immigrant, and so would send a more liberal message to the public. However, it could be a poisoned chalice for him unless he confronts his party’s immigration policies, and changes them. On the other hand, Javid has a reputation in his previous role as minister for housing, communities and local government of not being shy, in challenging Mrs. May, as well as criticising her previous election strategy. At his very first Brexit Cabinet Committee meeting, 2^nd May last, he openly sided with the Brexiteers Boris Johnson, Liam Fox, and Michael Gove against Mrs May. The Brexiteers are proposing a technological solution to border controls and a complete break with the EU, while Mrs May prefers the option of a customs partnership with the EU, where border controls would not be necessary. Mrs May lost the vote 5 to 6 in favour of Boris Johnson and his friends, whom now strangely Mr Javid has joined up with. Up to now the government has suffered ten defeats in the House of Lords on the EU bill.

Mrs May will have to realise that the ‘third way’ no longer works, and that sooner or later she will have to join one side or the other. Or is it that Mrs May is waiting for the pendulum to stop on one side or the other before she decides?