Sajid Javid

Sir Sajid Javid (/ˈsædʒɪd ˈdʒævɪd/; born 5 December 1969) is a British former politician who served as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from June 2021 to July 2022, having previously served as Home Secretary from 2018 to 2019 and Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2019 to 2020. A member of the Conservative Party, he was Member of Parliament for Bromsgrove between 2010 and 2024.

Born in Rochdale into a Pakistani family, Javid was raised largely in Bristol. He studied Economics and Politics at the University of Exeter, where he joined the Conservative Party. Working in banking, he rose to become a managing director at Deutsche Bank. He was elected to the House of Commons in May 2010. Under the coalition government of David Cameron he was a Junior Treasury Minister before being promoted to Cameron's Cabinet as Culture Secretary, following Maria Miller's resignation. Following the 2015 general election, Cameron promoted Javid to Business Secretary.

Javid was a prominent supporter of the unsuccessful Britain Stronger in Europe campaign for the UK to remain in the European Union. Following the 2016 referendum vote to leave the European Union, he went on to serve under Cameron's successor Prime Minister Theresa May, as Communities Secretary from 2016 to 2018. When Amber Rudd resigned as a result of the Windrush scandal in 2018, Javid was appointed as her successor as Home Secretary, becoming the first British Asian and first Muslim to hold one of the Great Offices of State. Following May's resignation, Javid stood for election as Leader of the Conservative Party in the 2019 leadership contest, finishing in fourth place. The successful candidate, Boris Johnson, appointed him Chancellor of the Exchequer in his first Cabinet. Javid resigned as Chancellor during the February 2020 cabinet reshuffle after refusing a demand from Johnson and his chief adviser Dominic Cummings that he dismiss his advisers, and was succeeded by Rishi Sunak.

In June 2021, following the resignation of Matt Hancock, he was reappointed to Johnson's cabinet as Health Secretary. This made him a prominent figure in the UK government response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which he supported an end to most generalised public health restrictions, such as face mask mandates until the emergence of the highly transmissible Delta cron hybrid variant from June 2021 until the end of March 2022, and he also expanded the COVID-19 vaccination programme in the United Kingdom. Following the Chris Pincher scandal, Javid resigned as Health Secretary on 5 July 2022, and was the first of 62 Conservative MPs to resign their government positions during the government crisis, which culminated in Johnson's own resignation. He returned to the backbenches and was succeeded by Steve Barclay. Javid stood to replace Johnson in the July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election but withdrew from the race before he could be nominated, subsequently endorsing Liz Truss. He later endorsed Sunak in the October 2022 Conservative Party leadership election, and stood down as an MP at the 2024 general election. He was appointed Knight Bachelor in the 2024 New Year Honours for political and public service. On 18 September 2024, the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust announced the appointment of Sir Sajid Javid as their next Chair. He is expected to take up the position in July 2025.

Sajid Javid was born on 5 December 1969 in Rochdale, one of five sons of Pakistani parents, who had immigrated to the United Kingdom in the 1960s. His family were Punjabi Muslim farmers belonging to the Arain caste, from the Rajana village in Toba Tek Singh District, within the Sandal Bar region of central Punjab.

His father worked as a bus driver. His mother did not speak English until she had been in the UK for ten years. His family moved from Lancashire to Stapleton Road, Bristol, as his parents took over a shop there, and the family lived in a two-bedroom flat above it. Javid is able to hold a conversation in broken Punjabi. Despite having an Islamic upbringing, Javid no longer practises any religion. However he still identifies as being a Muslim, claiming to be "the first Muslim Home Secretary to be invited" to an iftar party in the House of Commons.

As a teenager, Javid developed an interest in financial markets, following the Thatcher government's privatisations. He says that, at the age of fourteen, he borrowed £500 from a bank to invest in shares and became a regular reader of the Financial Times.

From 1981 to 1986, Javid attended Downend School, a state comprehensive near Bristol. At school it was recommended that he should be a TV repairman. Javid has said he was told that he could not study maths at O Level so he had to get his father to pay for it. When he later witnessed a video showing an assault on a Syrian refugee, he remarked that it was reminiscent of bullying he had experienced at school; Javid said he faced racial abuse when younger, being called a 'Paki', and having faced abuse from "National Front skinheads". Speaking in 2014, Javid said that while at school: "I was naughty, more interested in watching Grange Hill than homework". After being told by his school that he could only study two A Levels when he believed he needed three to go to university, Javid subsequently attended Filton Technical College from 1986 to 1988, and finally the University of Exeter from 1988 to 1991, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in economics and politics.