Britain’s interior secretary, the son of a Pakistani bus driver, has complained he was never given a satisfactory answer for being excluded from the state banquet held to honor President Trump last week.
Sajid Javid, who is running to replace Theresa May as prime minister, told the BBC the decision was “odd.”
Other ministers holding lesser positions in government — such as Michael Gove, the environment secretary, and Penny Mordaunt, the defense secretary — attended the lavish dinner at Buckingham Palace.
Javid, 49, declined to speculate on whether his exclusion was because he was a Muslim or because he had publicly criticized Trump in 2017 when the president shared tweets posted by a far-right group.
“I don’t like it. It is odd,” he told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” program. He said his office asked No. 10 for an explanation. “I was just told that normally home secretaries aren’t invited,” he said.
The post is one of the three most senior Cabinet positions and one of the four great offices of state — along with prime minister, foreign secretary, and chancellor of the exchequer.
Amber Rudd, his predecessor as home secretary, attended a number of state banquets held for visiting world leaders.
Javid’s parents come from Pakistan and he was raised as a Muslim but he no longer adheres to the faith — or any other. He has said: “My wife is a practicing Christian and the only religion practiced in my house is Christianity.”
He insisted he was not suggesting that, or his Muslim background were a factor. “I am not saying that at all. I really don’t know,” he said.
In 2017 he accused Trump of endorsing a “vile hate-filled organization that hates me and people like me,” after the president retweeted Britain First, which campaigns against multiculturalism and what it sees as the Islamization of the United Kingdom.
The prime minister’s official spokesman said it was “categorically untrue” to link the lack of an invitation to Javid’s Muslim background, adding: “The prime minister is proud to have appointed Sajid Javid as the country’s first Muslim home secretary.”
