Image source, PA

He has replaced Sajid Javid and been appointed as the new Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government in the latest cabinet reshuffle following Amber Rudd's resignation.

The former Northern Ireland secretary had to step down from the cabinet in January due to ill health after being diagnosed with the early stages of lung cancer.

He returned to Parliament in February, saying he was "recovering strongly" after lung surgery.

The 50-year-old is a close ally of Prime Minister Theresa May, having served under her for five years at the Home Office.

The former lawyer was appointed secretary of state for Northern Ireland on 14 July 2016.

He has had the unenviable job of leading government efforts to restore the devolved Northern Ireland executive after power sharing collapsed in January 2017.

He voted to Remain.

An MP who represents victims of the Grenfell Tower fire has criticised the appointment of Sajid Javid as the new home secretary.

Labour's Emma Dent Coad said the former communities and local government secretary had "overseen nearly 11 months of failure", after admitting some residents of the North Kensington tower block would not be re-homed within 12 months.

Image source, Reuters

After becoming an MP in 2010, Sajid Javid has risen swiftly through the ranks of the Conservative Party and government to attain one of the great offices of state.

He moves from his role at Communities and Local Government, which has been taken over by former Northern Ireland secretary James Brokenshire.

The son of Pakistani immigrants, Mr Javid was born in Rochdale to humble beginnings.

His father was a bus driver and he attended a state school near Bristol, before going to Exeter University, and worked in banking before entering politics.

The 48-year-old is the first BAME politician to hold the post.

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, the new home secretary said the Windrush scandal, which led to Amber Rudd's resignation, is close to his heart.

"It immediately impacted me," he said.

"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."

As someone who campaigned to stay in the EU, Mr Javid maintains the delicate balance of Remainers and Brexiters in the highest positions in the cabinet.

International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt is to take on Amber Rudd's former responsibilities as Minister for Women and Equalities.

Image source, PA

Sajid Javid is the new home secretary.

It comes after Amber Rudd resigned on Sunday evening after admitting she "inadvertently misled" MPs over targets for removing illegal immigrants.

He is due to arrive at the Home Office in Marsham Street to take over the department.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable said Amber Rudd's resignation was "inevitable".

But he told BBC Breakfast that "the trouble is only just beginning" for Theresa May.

"The prime minister owns a lot of this issue," he said. "We have one of the big departments of government that is in terrible trouble."

Amelia Gentleman, the Guardian journalist who broke the Windrush story, says Amber Rudd's resignation is an "extraordinary moment" for the people caught up in the scandal.

She told Radio 4's Today programme: "I've been talking over last night and this morning to a number of them who've really had their lives ruined in totally catastrophic ways as a result of the Home Office treatment of them.

"They feel on the one hand extremely relieved that the government is finally taking this issue seriously.

"All of them expressed a bit of puzzlement that it was Amber Rudd taking the rap for this, because they point very clearly to Theresa May who they see as the architect of the policies that caused them all of these problems."

Image source, PA

Prominent Conservative backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg says he is as likely to become the next Arsenal manager as he is to replace Amber Rudd as home secretary.

He told LBC radio: "I think they are equally unlikely.

"I wouldn't be competent to be Arsenal manager and I'm not going to be asked to be home secretary."

He added that Remain-backing Nicky Morgan, the former education secretary, could replace Ms Rudd in order to maintain the "Brexit balance" in the cabinet.

Norman Smith
Assistant political editor

Image source, PA

This home secretary appointment in the cabinet is incredibly delicate in the whole Brexit conundrum because Amber Rudd was one of the most vociferous and pugnacious Remain members.

If Mrs May was going to replace her with someone like Michael Gove - a prominent Brexiteer - that would noticeably tilt the cabinet towards a hard Brexit. So this resignation has got tangled up in the intricacies of Brexit and the cabinet altogether.

Amber Rudd pretty much put her body on the line in the current crisis, she stood by Mrs May's objective of getting net migration down to the tens of thousands - even though I'm pretty sure she didn't believe in it. She stood by the 'hostile environment' approach to immigration which Theresa May set up.

Now with her out of the way all the questions about immigration will be directed at Theresa May and whether she knew about targets. So the pressure, as it were, moves to Mrs May.

Laura Kuenssberg
BBC political editor

Dominic Casciani
Home Affairs Correspondent

Almost exactly 12 years ago, another home secretary - Labour's Charles Clarke - lost his job over his department's failure to properly manage the removal from the UK of foreign national offenders. In between his sacking by the then prime minister Tony Blair and Sunday's resignation of Amber Rudd, there have been a string of reorganisations of the immigration system.

Whoever takes over at the Home Office's Marsham Street headquarters will face the same problems.

For years officials have been under immense political pressure to hit targets - from reducing asylum arrivals through to the deeply problematic net migration figure of today.

One high ranking official once told me that the Home Office' mission was simply "to get a grip of the numbers". Critics say that the human stories behind the Windrush scandal prove that it's time the department started treating people as more than a statistic in a spreadsheet.