Sajid Javid launches leadership bid to replace Theresa May

LONDON (Reuters): British interior minister Sajid Javid said on Monday he would stand in a leadership race to replace Prime Minister Theresa May, saying he would strive to deliver Brexit.

“I’m standing to be the next leader of (the) Conservatives and Prime Minister of our great country,” he said on Twitter, becoming the latest in a long line of Conservatives to announce a leadership bid.

“We need to restore trust, bring unity and create new opportunities across the UK. First and foremost, we must deliver Brexit.”

49-year-old Sajid Javid was appointed as Britain’s interior minister last year after Amber Rudd resigned over her handling of immigration policy.

A former investment banker and the son of a Pakistani immigrant bus driver, Javid is the face of a modern, multicultural and meritocratic Britain.

On the economically liberal wing of the Conservative Party, Javid voted for Britain to stay in the EU in 2016.

Since being appointed interior minister in April 2018, he has earned respect for his handling of a scandal over the treatment of the children of Caribbean immigrants, known as the Windrush generation.

However, he was recently criticised in liberal circles for stripping a teenage mother who ran away to join the Daesh group of her British nationality.