Theresa May has defended targets for the removal of illegal immigrants as she confirmed the practice was in place when she was home secretary.

Members of the public want the Government to deal with people who have no right to be in the country, the Prime Minister insisted.

But Jeremy Corbyn insisted Mrs May had “questions to answer” about her time in the Home Office.

Mrs May made Sajid Javid Home Secretary after Amber Rudd quit, admitting she “inadvertently” misled MPs over Government targets for removing illegal migrants.

During a local election campaign visit to Greater Manchester, Mrs May said: “When I was home secretary, yes, there were targets in terms of removing people from the country who were here illegally.

“This is important. If you talk to members of the public they want to ensure that we are dealing with people who are here illegally.”

Mr Corbyn said Ms Rudd had been the “human shield” for the Prime Minister.

The Labour leader said Mrs May “now has questions to answer” about “what she actually did as home secretary”.

“She was presiding over, in her terms, the creation of a hostile environment,” he said.

As well as the row over targets on migrant removals, Ms Rudd had also been battling intense criticism over the Windrush scandal, which has seen people from a Caribbean background denied access to benefits and healthcare or threatened with deportation despite decades of residence in the UK.

She became the fifth enforced departure from the Cabinet since last year’s snap general election and stepped down the evening before she was due to make a statement in the House of Commons.

Mr Javid vowed to make sure people caught up in the Windrush fiasco are treated with “decency and fairness” as he arrived at the Home Office to take up his new job.

The former investment banker was given the job during a telephone call with Mrs May and becomes the first person from an ethnic minority background to hold one of the four great offices of state.

He said: “The most urgent task I have is to help those British citizens that came from the Caribbean, the so-called Windrush generation, and make sure that they are treated with the decency and the fairness that they deserve.”

He added: “We are going to have a strategy in place that does something the previous home secretary set out last week when she made a statement to Parliament about making sure we have an immigration policy that is fair, it treats people with respect and with decency.

“That will be one of my most urgent tasks, to make sure we look carefully at the policy and make sure it achieves just that.”

He was replaced as Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government by former Northern Ireland secretary James Brokenshire, who has recently returned to Westminster after treatment for cancer.

International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt takes on Ms Rudd’s former responsibilities as Minister for Women and Equalities.

Culture Secretary Matt Hancock hailed him as “a serious political thinker who gets things done” while Chief Secretary to the Treasury Liz Truss described him as “effective, no-nonsense and brave”.</s>The 64-year-old Labour MP joined Good Morning Britain presenters Piers Morgan, 53, and Susanna Reid, 47, live from central London on today's programme. The shadow Home Secretary was called in to discuss Amber Rudd's resignation in the wake of the Windrush scandal, and she was also quizzed on Labours position on immigration policy. But her telly interview was far from smooth, and Piers was far from satisfied with her answers. He started: "I can't work out what your view is. Would you want to see people of that category and given amnesty?" Diane retorted: "What I'm saying to you, is the immigration and national department is not fit for purpose. I don't blame the staff but it is the department that needs reviewing and reorganising."

Piers snapped: "With respect that's not an answer to my question. What is Labours policy. Do you think they should be removed from the country? It's not a difficult questions." He then added: "I'm just going to ask one more time, should illegal immigrants be able to stay in this country or should they be removed?" Diane replied: "No Piers, The logical fall out, is to try and work towards an immigration and nationality." But Piers wasn't having any of it and persisted: "I'm not trying to trip you up. I'm just trying to work out what Labour's view of illegal immigrants is: whether they should stay in the country or whether they should leave? "I don't know why you're finding it hard to answer the question." The dad-of-four later went to Twitter to slam Diane's appearance on the show.

“I'm just going to ask one more time, should illegal immigrants be able to stay in this country or should they be removed?” He wrote to his 6.51million followers: "it is so odd that she would find my question unreasonable and impossible to answer. She's the shadow Home Secretary!" Social media was sent into a frenzy during the heated debate and viewers were quick to comment on the debacle. One person slammed: "Why can't Dianne Abbott answer a question? Cannot abide that woman." "Dianne Abbott has no shame. Can hardly string a sentence together," added another. A third laughed: "Piers Morgan is expecting a direct, intelligent response from Diane Abbott...Good luck with that."

Others praised Piers for his interview technique: "Piers great interview with Diane Abbott who yet again refuses to answer a fair question." Amber Rudd resigned from Parliament last night amid claims that she set about targets to deport illegal immigrants. She phoned Prime Minister Theresa May this evening to tell her of the decision just hours after calls for her to step down intensified. Ms Rudd telephoned Theresa May to tell her of the decision amid intensifying opposition demands for her to quit. A spokesman for 10 Downing Street said: "The Prime Minister has tonight accepted the resignation of the Home Secretary."</s>The new Home Secretary Sajid Javid has been called to the House of Commons to answer an Urgent Question on the Windrush scandal .

It comes after Theresa May refused three times to answer questions over whether she should resign over the fiasco which has seen members of that cohort denied medical treatment and benefits.

The rattled Prime Minister desperately tried to apply life support to her “decomposing” Government following Amber Rudd's dramatic resignation by replacing her with Sajid Javid.

He is the first BAME holder of the post in its history. But as the focus swiftly moved from Ms Rudd to Mrs May, the PM dodged repeated questions on whether she should take responsibility for the Windrush fiasco.

Speaking to reporters during a local elections visit to Sale, Greater Manchester, Mrs May was asked three times if the Windrush scandal was a resignation matter for her or if she should take responsibility for it.

Instead, she simply said: "The Windrush generation are British, they are here, they are part of us and what we have done is, in recognising the concern that has been raised, put a team in place that will be working with people to ensure that they get the documents that are necessary."

Mrs May also defended targets for the removal of illegal immigrants as she confirmed the practice was in place when she was Home Secretary. Jeremy Corbyn insisted Mrs May had "questions to answer" about her time in the Home Office - saying Ms Rudd had been the "human shield" for the Prime Minister.

The Labour leader said Mrs May "now has questions to answer" about "what she actually did as home secretary".

"She was presiding over, in her terms, the creation of a hostile environment," he added.

Mrs May later ducked further scrutiny by sending new Home Secretary Mr Javid to the Commons to answer an urgent question on the Windrush scandal from Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott.

Earlier, senior Labour figures and even some Tories today said Mrs May’s administration was now effectively dying. Ex-Tory Chancellor George Osborne swiped: “The Government just got a bit less human.”

And Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell said the Government was “in terminal disarray”, adding: “You can smell the undoubted odour of a government decomposing.”</s>GAM Says Rudd Adds to Uncertainty on Brexit, Pound

Julian Howard, head of multi-asset solutions at GAM, discusses Amber Rudd's resignation as U.K. Home Secretary and its potential impact on Brexit negotiations, the pound and other U.K. assets. He speaks on "Bloomberg Daybreak: Europe." (Source: Bloomberg)</s>London—Pakistani-origin MP Sajid Javid was today appointed as Britain's new Home Secretary, hours after his predecessor Amber Rudd resigned after admitting that she had "inadvertently misled" Parliament over the existence of deportation targets for immigrants.

Javid, the son of a Pakistani bus driver whose family migrated to Britain in the 1960s, was promoted from his Cabinet post of Communities, Local Government and Housing minister.

The 48-year-old former investment banker becomes the first South Asian origin MP to hold the key portfolio in the UK Cabinet.

He is the Conservative party MP for Bromsgrove and has previously held business and culture portfolios in the UK government.

"The Queen has been pleased to approve the appointment of...Sajid Javid MP as secretary of state for the home department," a Downing Street statement said.

His appointment is widely seen as a way for British Prime Minister Theresa May to curtail the backlash from the so-called Windrush scandal, which brought to light the unfair treatment of Commonwealth citizens from Jamaica over a lack of citizenship documentation.

"I was really concerned when I first started hearing and reading about some of the issues. It immediately impacted me. I'm a second-generation migrant. My parents came to this country... just like the Windrush generation," Javid wrote in 'The Sunday Telegraph'.

"When I heard about the Windrush issue I thought, That could be my mum it could be my dad it could be my uncle it could be me," he added.

James Brokenshire, the former Northern Ireland secretary who stood down in January due to health reasons to have a tumour removed from his lung, has been moved into Javid's old job as Housing, Communities and Local Government secretary.

UK international development secretary, Penny Mordaunt, takes on the additional role of minister for equalities.

The resignation of 52-year-old Rudd, a key ally of May, followed weeks of pressure ever since her statement to the Parliament's Home Affairs Select Committee denying knowledge of any targets to remove illegal migrants from the UK.

Leaked memos and letters in the media seemed to contradict her claims, resulting in her decision to step down.

The furor has grown since The Guardian reported that some people who came to the UK from the Caribbean in the decades after World War II had recently been refused medical care in Britain or threatened with deportation because they could not produce paperwork proving their right to reside in the country.

Those affected belong to the Windrush generation, named for the ship Empire Windrush, which in 1948 brought hundreds of Caribbean immigrants to Britain to help it rebuild after the devastation of World War II.

In recent weeks, Rudd and May have apologised repeatedly to the Windrush generation, saying all pre-1973 Commonwealth immigrants who don't already have British citizenship will get it, and those affected will get compensation.

Rudd said she took "full responsibility" for the fact that she was not aware of "information provided to (her) office which makes mention of targets".

She telephoned May to tell her of her decision, but in a letter that officially marked it she wrote: "It is with great regret that I am resigning as home secretary.

"I feel it is necessary to do so because I inadvertently misled the Home Affairs Select Committee over targets for removal of illegal immigrants during their questions on Windrush."

May said she understood why Rudd was stepping down and confirmed she had read her letter, adding: "I was very sorry to receive it."

The prime minister said she believed Rudd had given her evidence to the House of Commons "in good faith" but that she understood her decision to resign and take "responsibility for inadvertently misleading the home affairs select committee".

Rudd's resignation may weaken Prime Minister Theresa May's government. The prime minister doesn't have a majority in the UK parliament and is struggling with Brexit negotiations.

Since May lost her parliamentary majority in elections last June, her leadership has often been under question, and she has already suffered three prior cabinet resignations.

Rudd became the fourth person forced to resign from the UK Cabinet in the last six months following former defence minister Sir Michael Fallon, former international development minister Priti Patel and May's deputy Damian Green.

The latest resignation comes just days before local council elections in Britain, due to be held on May 3, during which the Opposition parties will hope to capitalise on some of the upheaval in government.</s>James O'Brien's Must-Watch Monologue On Amber Rudd And Theresa May

James O'Brien simply can't understand how Amber Rudd has been forced to resign for presiding over a scandal caused by Theresa May - and yet the Prime Minister holds on.

Ms Rudd handed in her resignation last night after admitting to misleading parliament over on immigrant removal targets.

That was part of a "hostile environment policy" that Mrs May introduced during her time in the Home Office.

And in his passionate monologue, James insisted there is no reason for Rudd to go, but May to stay.

Speaking on his LBC show, James said: "We have a Prime Minister, who as Home Secretary, brought in hostile environment policies and an obsession with immigration targets.

"How can she still be in a job when her successor in the Home Office, who essentially presided over what she inherited and ended up in hot water.

"This is the really grim bit. She hasn't gone because of what she did to men and women who have lived here for four or five or six decades in peaceful, law-abiding, tax-paying harmony, but ended up being locked up, thrown out of their jobs, facing eviction from their homes, losing healthcare which they expected to be provided by a system into which they had paid for decades.

"She hasn't resigned because of what she did to them. Don't make that mistake.

"She has resigned solely and exclusively because she got busted completely lying to the House of Commons."</s>Sajid Javid has been appointed as home secretary, replacing Amber Rudd who resigned after repeatedly struggling to account for her role in the unjust treatment of Windrush-generation migrants.

Theresa May announced Javid’s appointment on Monday morning, installing the communities secretary to the Home Office where his first job will be to deal with the ongoing immigration debacle.

He is the first BAME politician to hold the role and his appointment could offer some hope to critics that the government is aware of how damaging the issue has been for community relations and trust in the immigration system.

The home secretary, whose parents emigrated from Pakistan in the 1960s, spoke at the weekend about his initial reaction to news of the treatment of Windrush-generation migrants. “I thought that could be my mum … my dad … my uncle … it could be me,” he said.

Javid, 48, said he recognised the scandal could cause concern among ethnic minority voters but issued a plea to those who were wavering to look at the government’s attempts to “put things right”.

The Home Office, one of the major offices of state, is a notoriously difficult department to run, with many secretaries having been forced to quit as a result of errors.

Dealing with the Windrush crisis, as well as the underlying problems around immigration, will be top of Javid’s inbox. However, tackling rising knife crime, fighting to justify policing cuts and handling the ongoing terrorism threat are all key issues.

A Downing Street statement said: “The Queen has been pleased to approve the appointment of the Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP as secretary of state for the home department.”

James Brokenshire, the former Northern Ireland secretary who stood down in January to have a tumour removed from his lung, was moved to Javid’s old job as housing, communities and local government secretary.



The return of the key loyalist, who was a Home Office minister throughout May’s six-year tenure there, was a predictable move from the prime minister, who is said to feel the need to bolster her fragile position with supportive allies.



The international development secretary, Penny Mordaunt, takes on the additional role of minister for equalities.

In appointing Javid, May has attempted to maintain the delicate balance in her cabinet between remainers and Brexiters, which is particularly important because the home secretary sits on the Brexit “war cabinet” which meets this week.

While Rudd was a clear advocate of staying in the European Union, within days of the referendum Javid, who had campaigned to remain, insisted the result must be respected. And while his predecessor was a strong voice around the cabinet table for staying in the customs union, the new home secretary has made clear he is sceptical of softer Brexit options.

Javid, a George Osborne protege just like Rudd, was previously a minister in the Treasury. His first cabinet appointment came in 2014 as culture secretary. The former investment banker has also served as business secretary. 



His 18 months running the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has been dominated by the fallout from the fatal Grenfell Tower fire, and pressing for more house building despite resistance from the Treasury.



Ministers moved swiftly to rally round May on Monday, insisting Rudd only stood down because she inadvertently misled MPs, not because of the wider Windrush migration scandal.



Rudd was forced to step down after a series of revelations in the Guardian about problems faced by Windrush-generation residents, which culminated in a leak on Friday that appeared to show she was aware of targets for removing people who were in the country illegally.

The pressure increased on Sunday afternoon as the Guardian revealed that in a leaked 2017 letter to May, Rudd had told the prime minister of her intention to increase deportations by 10% – seemingly at odds with her recent denials that she was aware of deportation targets.

Rudd was facing a bruising appearance in the House of Commons on Monday, which government insiders suggested she was keen to avoid.</s>LONDON -- British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday appointed the first ethnic-minority politician to the key post of home secretary, as the government struggled to contain a scandal over the mistreatment of long-term residents from the Caribbean. Lawmaker Sajid Javid replaced Amber Rudd, who resigned late Sunday, saying she had "inadvertently" misled lawmakers about whether the government had deportation targets.

The "Windrush" scandal has dominated headlines in Britain for days and sparked intense criticism of the Conservative government's tough immigration policies.

The furor began when the Guardian newspaper reported that some people from the Caribbean who have lived in Britain for decades had been refused medical care or threatened with deportation because they could not produce paperwork proving their right to reside in the country.

Outrage at their treatment has piled pressure on May, who was home secretary between 2010 and 2016 and introduced tough immigration policies intended to make Britain a "hostile environment" for unauthorized migrants.

Javid on Monday said his most urgent task was "to help those British citizens that came from the Caribbean, the so-called Windrush generation, and make sure that they are treated with the decency and the fairness that they deserve."

Javid, the son of Pakistani immigrants, is the first politician from an ethnic minority to hold one of the four top jobs in Britain's government - prime minister, finance minister, foreign secretary and home secretary.

Immigration is a divisive issue in Britain, and reducing the number of newcomers was a major factor for many voters who in 2016 backed leaving the European Union. The Conservative government has an oft-stated but long-unmet goal of reducing net immigration below 100,000 people a year, less than half the current level.

The current furor involves members of the "Windrush generation," named for the ship Empire Windrush, which in 1948 brought hundreds of Caribbean immigrants to a Britain seeking nurses, railway workers and others to help it rebuild after the devastation of World War II.

They and subsequent Caribbean migrants came from British colonies or ex-colonies and had an automatic right to settle in the U.K. But some have now been denied housing, jobs or medical treatment because of requirements that employers and doctors check people's immigration status. Others have been told by the government that they are in Britain illegally and must leave.

"That could be me," Javid told the Sunday Telegraph.

In recent weeks Rudd and May have apologized repeatedly, saying that all pre-1973 Commonwealth immigrants who don't already have British citizenship will get it and those affected will get compensation.

But Rudd's position worsened after she told lawmakers last week that the government did not have targets for deporting people - only for a 2017 memo to emerge that mentioned specific targets for "enforced removals."

Rudd said she didn't see the memo, but The Guardian later published a leaked letter she wrote to the prime minister discussing an aim of increasing removals by 10 percent.

In a resignation letter to the prime minister, Rudd said she had "inadvertently" misled lawmakers. May said she accepted that Rudd had spoken "in good faith" and was sorry to see her resign.

The Windrush scandal is also causing anxiety for the 3 million European Union citizens living in Britain who are concerned about their immigration status after the country leaves the EU next March. The British government says they will be allowed to stay.

May's office said Javid's former job, communities secretary, would be filled by James Brokenshire, a former secretary of state for Northern Ireland.</s>Voters are much more inclined to blame Theresa May for the Windrush scandal than Amber Rudd, according to a Sky Data poll.

Ms Rudd resigned as Home Secretary after she admitted to "inadvertently misleading" Parliament over targets for removing illegal immigrants.

It followed the scandal around the treatment of the Windrush generation - Commonwealth citizens who legally emigrated to Britain decades ago.

A number of them have been refused healthcare, benefits and been threatened with deportation, as they lacked paperwork to support their immigration status.

Some 31% of those surveyed think Mrs May, who was home secretary at the time, is responsible for the mistreatment of those involved, with two in three agreeing that her government is now "unstable".

In contrast, just 4% hold Ms Rudd mostly to blame, with 24% blaming civil servants, and 18% blaming the last Labour government.

Despite this, the majority (55%) think Ms Rudd did the right thing by stepping down, against 29% who say she should have stayed.

The figures are a turnaround from last week, when a Sky Data poll showed the public divided, with 41% backing her to stay and 41% calling on her to go.

Amber Rudd is the fourth cabinet minister to resign in six months following Michael Fallon, Priti Patel and Damian Green.

And the public appears to have noticed, with 64% describing Theresa May's government as unstable, against 33% who think it is stable.

:: Sky Data interviewed a nationally representative sample of 1,226 Sky customers via SMS on 30 April. Data are weighted to the profile of the population.

For full Sky Data tables, please click here.</s>Ms Rudd had previously declared to a parliamentary committee the Government had no specific targets with regard to the removal of illegal immigrants. However, she was lambasted for misleading Parliament after a leaked Home Office memo spoke of a target of 2,800 enforced returns for 2017-2018. After almost two years in the role, Ms Rudd declared that she felt it was “necessary” to resign and admitted she “inadvertently misled the Home Affairs Select Committee” over the targets.

“It is with great regret that I am resigning as Home Secretary. I feel it is necessary to do so because I inadvertently misled the Home Affairs Select Committee over targets for removal of illegal immigrants during their questions on Windrush. “Since appearing before the Select Committee, I have reviewed the advice was given on this issue and become aware of information provided to my office which makes mention of targets. I should have been aware of this, and I take full responsibility for the fact that I was not. “The Windrush scandal has rightly shone a light on an important issue for our country. As so often, the instincts of the British people are right. They want people who have a right to live here to be treated fairly and humanely, which has sometimes not been the case. But they also want the Government to remove those who don't have the right to be here. “I had hoped in coming months to devise a policy that would allow the Government to meet both these vital objectives - including bringing forward urgent legislation to ensure the rights of the Windrush generation are protected. The task force is working well, the residence cards are being issued well within the two weeks promised, and the design of the compensation scheme is making good progress.

“The Home Office is one of the great offices of state and its job is to keep people safe. It comes with the responsibility to fight terrorism, support and challenge the police and protect people against abuse, as well as manage migration. “It has been a great privilege to serve as your Home Secretary. I have seen first-hand the second to none commitment and bravery of our police, fire and intelligence services, they truly are the best in the world and we should rightly be extremely proud of them. “I have been particularly pleased that we were able to set up the first Global Internet Forum for Counter Terrorism which has led the way with encouraging social media sites to go further and faster in taking down radicalising and terrorist material, which plays such a dangerous part in increasing extremism.

“Setting out new laws to tackle the scourge of knife crime and acid attacks and helping to steer our young people away from a life of crime and violence by providing them with credible alternatives have been particularly important to me. “Opportunities to work on issues that safeguard the vulnerable, champion women and make a lasting impact on people's lives particularly stand out for me. New policies to fight domestic violence and abuse against women are out to consultation, and will lead this country to taking a new approach. “Helping to bring over thousands of refugees, including child refugees from both Calais and the Middle East region, and meeting some of the families who fled the terrible situation in Syria and have now been given a chance to rebuild their lives here in the UK in safety and security is something we can be proud of.

“It has been an honour to work on a new security treaty with the EU as part of our new partnership going forward and to participate in your Brexit sub-committee helping to ensure that we have the best possible EU deal for our economy, businesses, jobs and people across the UK. “The new Economic Crime Centre that I launched with the first use of unexplained wealth orders will be important to the confidence of London as a financial centre. “I will continue to support the Home Office ministerial team whenever possible on all these important subjects, supporting the Government from the back benches and continuing to work hard for my constituents of Hastings and Rye.
Sajid Javid becomes the United Kingdom's Home Secretary following the resignation of Amber Rudd over the Windrush scandal. He is the first Home Secretary from an ethnic minority background.