and Local Government following Sajid Javid's appointment as Home Secretary in the light of Amber Rudd's resignation after the Windrush scandal. After his appointment, Brokenshire said he was "looking forward to taking the Government's agenda forward especially on building the homes our country needs". In this role, Brokenshire was responsible for regional growth, local government, housing, planning, rough sleeping, building safety and communities. Hours after taking on the new role Brokenshire appeared in Parliament and stated, after a question from Andrew Gwynne (Labour's shadow communities secretary), that "local government is in my blood". He piloted the Tenant Fees Act (2019) through Parliament which, among other regulations, caps the deposit a landlord or a letting agency may take from a new tenant and largely abolishes administration fees. In April 2019, Brokenshire sacked philosopher Sir Roger Scruton from his unpaid role as chair of the British government's "Building Better, Building Beautiful" commission. The dismissal followed the publication of an interview with Scruton by George Eaton in the New Statesman magazine, in which Eaton had suggested that Scruton had made unsavoury remarks. A series of online comments from Eaton suggested that he had set out to present Scruton, a former contributor to the New Statesman, in a poor light. Following a campaign from Douglas Murray of The Spectator, the tapes of the interview were eventually leaked, which prompted the New Statesman to publish a correction of its original article and an apology. Brokenshire apologised to Scruton for his sacking and invited him to rejoin the commission. Minister of State for Security (2nd term) In 2020, Brokenshire returned to government as the Minister for Security. On 11 January 2021, he announced that he would be taking a leave of absence to prepare for a cancer operation. On 7 July 2021, Brokenshire tendered his resignation to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, stating his recovery from lung cancer was "taking longer than expected". Political views On Brexit, Brokenshire was believed to have voted to remain in the EU in the 2016 referendum, but by April 2019, his position on the "soft Brexit v no deal" debate was described by reporters in The Guardian as unclear. Personal life Brokenshire married Cathrine Anne Mamelok in 1999. They had two daughters and a son. He had expressed support for the charity Cancer Research UK and in March 2013 publicly backed their Cell Slider website, calling on all of his constituents