Sajid Javid is a politician with a Teflon-like quality who is often at pains to emphasise his personal sincerity – though he doesn’t always produce results (Javid steps into the breach as PM tries to halt Windrush crisis, 1 May).
As business secretary he told Port Talbot steel workers in 2016 “we’re on your side”; he committed to do “everything I can” to keep their plant open. In 2017, after the Grenfell Tower disaster, Javid, as housing and communities secretary, said it had “shaken my comprehension” of what being a cabinet minister was about. He said he would “do everything possible not just to replace houses and provide immediate relief, but to seek justice for those people who have been failed”. Recently, Labour’s Tony Lloyd pointed out in the Commons that Javid’s “promise that everyone would be rehoused within the year’s anniversary of the tragedy” had been “abysmally failed”. Now, the new home secretary says he is “personally committed” to sorting out the problems of Commonwealth immigrants as a “matter of urgency”. Perhaps he’ll finally stay in a job long enough to fulfil one of his heartfelt promises. But maybe not. His rapid upward trajectory, and Theresa May’s fragile position, means he might soon be moving into 10 Downing Street.
Joe McCarthy
Dublin
• I look forward to Sajid Javid dealing with the problems created by his predecessors. In January, I met with him as my local MP to discuss the issues with tier 2 visa for junior doctors, such as my colleague Dr Syed Kazmi. Thirty-five consultants and 35,000 other people signed a petition to Amber Rudd asking that he would not be deported. He, and his British-born children, had to leave the UK, due to a failure of the Home Office to renew their visas. Earlier this year, the Royal College of Physicians, NHS Employers, the British Medical Association and six other royal colleges wrote to the government outlining their views regarding the current policy on the tier 2 visa cap – they have yet to receive a reply.
A migration policy that creates injustice and cannot tell between a doctor and a criminal to be deported cuts to the moral fabric of our society and worsens the existing NHS crisis.
Dr David Nicholl
Consultant neurologist, Hagley, Worcestershire
• Our society is being damaged by increasing polarisation and entrenchment of views. And now we have Sajid Javid, an ardent admirer of Ayn Rand, in one of the great offices of state (Thatcher devotee who has a tense relationship with May, 1 May). So let’s see what she preaches. “There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil.” Just the sort of balanced, nuanced and democratic approach we need.
Jan Wiczkowski
Manchester
• With due acknowledgement to Blackadder the Third, Messrs Javid and Osborne and Mrs May satisfy the first Keanrick-Mossop criterion with “the stance” (Return of the Tories’ power stance, 1 May). Now, what about the second, “the roar”?
John Woods
Kingswood, Surrey
• Power stance? They look as though they’ve wet themselves.
Mary Hutchison
West Kilbride, Ayrshire
• Sajid Javi’s first priority should be to sack whoever advised him to adopt that pose outside the Home Office on his first day in the job.
Mike Dixon
Manchester
• Power stance? Spanning the abyss.
Margaret Waddy
Cambridge
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