Sajid Javid Quotes

My decision to appoint an inspector is not taken lightly. I hope it sends a strong signal that robust processes are in place to investigate allegations of failures in financial management and governance in local government.

Today, I don’t think anyone would think that a mixed-race couple looks odd; I think it’s considered perfectly normal. In a very short time frame, the country has changed so much, and for the better. Britain has become, I think, the most tolerant and open-minded country in the world.

Some people say these aren’t huge numbers, but let’s also remember that our job here is to make sure this doesn’t turn into a new route for ever-increased illegal migration, so I want to stop it now as much as I possibly can.

Setting an immigration target reduced to the tens of thousands is one thing when unemployment is running at 8 per cent. Refusing to review it when the country nears full employment and sectors are reporting skills shortages is quite another.

Our streets should be safe at all times. You shouldn’t have to worry about things like knife or other crime.

Please look at the response to Windrush, and the apology, in terms of trying to put things right and, secondly, the bigger picture about how this government has been committed to trying to deal with the injustices in society, some of which matter more to people from ethnic minorities.

I want to start by making a pledge, a pledge to those from the Windrush generation who have been in this country for decades and yet have struggled to navigate through the immigration system: This never should have been the case, and I will do whatever it takes to put it right.

Sending genuine refugees to face persecution in order to dissuade others from seeking to come here is plainly illegal.

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

I am a proud, British-born Muslim, and I love my country more than any other place on earth.

I want to send a very strong signal to people who do think about making this journey – we will do everything we can to make sure it is not a success in the sense that I don’t want people to think that if they leave a safe country like France that they can get to Britain and just get to stay.

I’m a second-generation migrant. My parents came to this country from Pakistan, just like the Windrush generation.

When it comes to human life, clearly I want to make sure we are doing all we can to protect people, and we must remember that this is one of the most treacherous stretches of water that there is – 21 miles, people taking grave risks.

It might sound strange coming from a home secretary – I’m a big fan of immigration and what it means for our country, in terms of how it makes us stronger.

Growing up in Rochdale, I think, all the kids in my street, pretty much every boy was playing cricket. I had four brothers as well, and we played a lot together. When it was just me on my own, I was bowling at a drainpipe.

What people want – and they will get – is control of our own system, with a lower and sustainable level of net migration. And, above all, that has to mean one thing: an end to freedom of movement.

When I heard about grooming gangs where almost every individual involved is of Pakistani heritage, I can’t help noting that. But I can’t helping noting the fact that Rochdale is a town that means something to me, and I’m also of Pakistani heritage.

When I was 11, I had just started my comprehensive school.

I was six or seven and an interpreter.

When it comes to gang-based child exploitation, it is self-evident to anyone who cares to look that if you look at all the recent high-profile cases, there is a high proportion of men that are of Pakistani heritage.

My mother was a tremendous influence – and still is – on my brothers and me in terms of the work ethic and values and making sure that we never forget where we’ve come from and are grateful for what we’ve got.

There were, of course, ups and downs. But whenever my parents were knocked down, in business or anything else, they picked themselves up and started again.

Imagine what we could achieve if we had more Conservative MEPs in the European Parliament in terms of getting a better deal for Britain and negotiating fundamental reform and putting that in a referendum to the British people.

As Culture Secretary, I realised how you can use sport to do so many other good things for society.

My parents were immigrants from Pakistan. My father has passed away now, but my father and mother were very proud of Britain, and they have always respected the country and always wanted to make a contribution.

I’ve huge responsibilities in this job. The biggest is to keep everyone safe. Like many others, I’ve seen the effects of crime close up, and I worry about my kids.

If I were transported into my father’s shoes, I would have been a Labour supporter, too, because in the 1960s and even in the 1970s, the Conservatives weren’t standing up for working people; there was too much of an interest in corporatism, and that didn’t start to change till Margaret Thatcher came along.

I’m going to start by making a confession. My name’s Sajid Javid. And I used to be a banker. No point denying it.

I do think there are some big questions here about approach, about how people are treated. I was brought up in very challenging areas.

I see neither the sense nor the need to stick to an immigration figure devised nearly a decade ago, which has never been met and does not fit the requirements of the country.

To apologize for the Balfour Declaration would be to apologize for the existence of Israel and to question its right to exist. Here in Britain, we will not merely mark the centenary – we will celebrate it with pride.

When people go to vote still in Britain, they will look at their local representatives, but I don’t think there is a sort of cult of personality politics. Obviously, they want to know who the leader is for each party, but I think there is a lot of identification with their local candidates.

I want Britain to be that kind of opportunity society where the Government is your friend, working with you, enabling rather than holding you back, intentionally or not.