Quotes from Sajid Javid

I'm the British home secretary. My job is to protect the British public.

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

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.

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.

I'm very much aware of the need for politicians to be careful with language as well as what they do.

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

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.

I see people all the time today, and they really don't care if their doctor is of Pakistani origin; what they care about is that they are getting a good service, and these are people that they do really see as British. I do think society has changed very positively like that.

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.

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.

A question has to be asked: if you are a genuine asylum seeker, why have you not sought asylum in the first safe country that you arrived in? Because France is not a country where anyone would argue it is not safe in any way whatsoever, and if you are genuine, then why not seek asylum in your first safe country?

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 think people vote Ukip from a frustration with politics, which is legitimate, and which politicians have to listen to.

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.

People only attempt perilous journeys like crossing the Channel because they are desperate. It is deeply concerning that men, women, and children feel they have no choice but to put their lives at risk in their search for a safe place to live.

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

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.

Like the Caribbean Windrush generation, my parents came to this country from the Commonwealth in the 1960s. They, too, came to help rebuild this country and offer all that they had.

We have a workforce crisis across the NHS with around 100,000 vacancies.

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 used to live in a street in Bristol which was, depending on your tabloid of choice, either Britain's most dangerous street or a moral cesspit. People made judgments about me on where I lived. It affected me - it affected my life chances. That is going on today with people in social housing. That, to me, isn't acceptable.

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.

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.

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