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Sir Sajid Javid

Sir Sajid Javid

UNQUESTIONABLY one of the biggest beasts in the political pack over the last decade, Sajid Javid, the former chancellor, health and home secretary, announced he was stepping down from front line politics not so long ago. In December 2022, he called time on his parliamentary career, saying he had wrestled with the decision “for some time”. In a post on X, he wrote: “After much reflection I have decided that I will not be standing again at the next General Election.” An MP for the leafy suburb of Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, he has served that constituency since 2010. He called it an “incredible privilege and said he would “continue to support the government and the causes I believe in”.

It is said he continues to do that from within the party and is one of the Tories’ most respect ed and prominent figures. Rishi Sunak with whom Javid had worked at the Treasury paid tribute at the time of his shock resignation from being chancellor in early 2020 – “Sad to see my good friend @sajidjavid stepping back from politics. He’s been a champion of enterprise and opportunity during his time in government and on the back benches – particularly for the people of Broms grove,” wrote Sunak at the time. He ended his post (or tweet as it was known back then on December 2 just hours after Javid’s own resignation post) with the words, “May the Force be with you, Saj.” Both Sunak and Javid are Star Wars’ fans and the reference dates back to a joint visit to the cinema around a year back, with the boss – and the understudy – seeing one of the franchise films together.


Javid stepped down in February 2020, after losing a power struggle with prime minister Boris Johnson’s most trusted aide at the time, Dominic Cummings. The two had clashed over the question of the independence of special advisors – with Cummings demanding all spads, as the

UNQUESTIONABLY one of the biggest beasts in the political pack over the last decade, Sajid Javid, the former chancellor, health and home secretary, announced he was stepping down from front line politics not so long ago. In December 2022, he called time on his parliamentary career, saying he had wrestled with the decision “for some time”. In a post on X, he wrote: “After much reflection I have decided that I will not be standing again at the next General Election.” An MP for the leafy suburb of Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, he has served that constituency since 2010. He called it an “incredible privilege and said he would “continue to support the government and the causes I believe in”. It is said he continues to do that from within the party and is one of the Tories’ most respect ed and prominent figures. Rishi Sunak with whom Javid had worked at the Treasury paid tribute at the time of his shock resignation from being chancellor in early 2020 – “Sad to see my good friend @sajidjavid stepping back from politics. He’s been a champion of enterprise and opportunity during his time in government and on the back benches – particularly for the people of Broms grove,” wrote Sunak at the time. He ended his post (or tweet as it was known back then on December 2 just hours after Javid’s own resignation post) with the words, “May the Force be with you, Saj.

” Both Sunak and Javid are Star Wars’ fans and the reference dates back to a joint visit to the cinema around a year back, with the boss – and the understudy – seeing one of the franchise films together. Javid stepped down in February 2020, after losing a power struggle with prime minister Boris Johnson’s most trusted aide at the time, Dominic Cummings. The two had clashed over the question of the independence of special advisors – with Cummings demanding all spads, as the Hancock but then few people as it turned out ever thought Hancock was health secretary material during an unprecedented global health crisis. Javid threw his hat into the leadership ring following Johnson’s petulant departure in the summer of 2022 but withdrew from the race before he could be formally nominated. Both he and Sunak share a banking and financial services background – Javid had a near 20-year career in the City and was head of Asian trading for Deustche Bank before joining the political fray in 2009 and then being elect ed an MP a year later. Sunak’s first career role was at Gold man Sachs before moving into hedge fund management. Javid, now 55, is expected to head back to the financial world and was recently a com missioner on the Institute for Government’s Centre Commission on the Centre of Government. A high-level committee – comprising more than a dozen members from politics, the media and business – was looking at why No 10, the Cabinet Office and The Treasury don’t always work in harmony. Javid would have a lot to contribute – over the years he has held many positions within government – starting with junior roles at the Treasury, then becoming secretary of state for culture, media and sport in 2014, before moving to business , innovation and skills, then housing, communities and local government before becoming secretary of state for the Home Department in 2018 and lasting nearly 18 months, and served Theresa May when she was prime minister.

When historians come to write the political history of the early 2010s and 2020s, Javid will feature prominently – few have held three major portfolios of state and come through the other side with an reputation, mostly intact. It might be argued that he laid the path for Sunak and can look back on his long political career with some satisfaction – and recognition came in the way of a knighthood in this year’s New Year’s Honour List. Though born in Rochdale, he spent much of his early life in Bristol – in one of its poorer districts. His father was a bus driver but the flame of ambition shone brightly – at state school, he excelled and went on to read Economics and Politics at the University of Exeter. A firm Thatcherite, he joined the party as a student and much admires Ayn Rand. The Russian American novelist’s The Fountainhead (1943) and ‘Atlas Shrugged’ (1957) is more influential on the Right of politics in the US – and its arguments for the rights of individuals and the primacy of capitalism and enterprise, suggest government should be small, taxes low and individuals free to pursue wealth as they see fit. Javid may continue to expound this sort of agenda from outside politics – people would still listen to him and hail him from a time when the Right was more about enterprise and entrepreneurship than any culture war.

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