Sajid Javid has replaced Matt Hancock as health secretary after the latter stepped down for breaking social distancing guidelines.
Javid previously held the so-called great offices of state – as home secretary and chancellor. He was home secretary under former prime minister Theresa May, and was, in 2019, promoted to chancellor by Boris Johnson.
However, he resigned as chancellor after six months in the role following tensions with the prime minister’s then-advisor Dominic Cummings.
Javid refused to fire his political advisers as demanded by Johnson saying it was something “no self-respecting minister” could do.
An MP from Bromsgrove since 2010, Javid was quickly promoted from economic and financial secretary to the Treasury to secretary for business, then culture and later, communities and local government. In all, in only 11 years in parliament, he’s already run six ministries including Culture, Business, Housing, Home Office, Treasury, and now Health.
Prior to his career in politics, Javid, who graduated from Exeter University, worked in business and finance. He is said to have been the youngest vice president at Chase Manhattan Bank, aged 25.
He later moved to Deutsche Bank in London to help build its business in emerging market countries.
Javid, who was born in Rochdale as one of five sons of parents who had moved to the UK from Pakistan, has often spoken of how he grew up in one of the roughest streets in Bristol. His father was a bus driver and his mum was a seamstress.
