A Midland MP who was born the son of a bus driver and became a high-flying banker has won a place in David Cameron’s Cabinet as the new Culture Secretary.
Sajid Javid, MP for Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, is to replace Maria Miller, the former Culture Secretary who resigned following a row over her expenses.
The move is a major promotion for the 44-year-old MP, who was previously a senior Treasury Minister.
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It means the West Midlands is represented at Cabinet level for the first time since Birmingham MP Andrew Mitchell (Sutton Coldfield) resigned from the Government in 2012.
Mr Javid became Conservative MP for Bromsgrove in 2010 - after the previous Conservative MP, Julie Kirkbride, chose not to stand again following criticism of her own expenses.
Mrs Miller quit her Cabinet post saying the row over expenses had “become an enormous distraction”,
She was cleared of funding a home for her parents at taxpayers’ expense, but was told to repay £5,800 of the expenses she claimed.
The independent parliamentary commissioner for standards had previously recommended she repay £45,000, but the lower sum was approved by the Commons Standards Committee - a decision which sparked a backlash across the political spectrum and calls for changes in how complaints against MPs are investigated.
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Mr Javid was born in Rochdale, Lancashire, as one of five sons to immigrant parents from Pakistan, before his family moved to Bristol where he spent much of his childhood.
His father was known as “Mr Night and Day” because he had two jobs and started as a cotton mill worker before becoming a bus driver and then founding his own business.
The MP became a bond trader on leaving university and he rose to become one of the youngest ever vice-presidents of Chase Manhattan bank at the tender age of 25. He later became a director of Deutsche Bank and ran its global credit arm in Asia.
He was bought up a Muslim and is married to a Christian wife. The couple have four children.
In a recent interview, he spoke about how his parents taught him about the virtues of hard work and self-improvement - and also about the need to have a fair immigration policy.
He said: “Our parents came here genuinely, my father was actually in his village in Pakistan and there were companies coming to recruit, begging him to come to Britain. At that time, with the nationality laws and with a Pakistan passport, he could come here quite easily.
“He came here, started working in a cotton mill in Rochdale and worked every single day of his life.
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“He came here legitimately. Where there is zero tolerance among the community is where people come to Britain illegally or maybe even legally, but have no interest in working or contributing – just seeing what benefits they can accrue. There’s no tolerance for that.”
But he also said the Conservative Party was struggling to win support from ethnic minority voters, partly because of Enoch Powell, the former Wolverhampton MP who spoke out against immigration from non-white countries, and the election campaign in Smethwick in 1964,when Conservatives were accused of running an anti-immigration campaign using racist language.
He said: “It’s fair to say, the facts show that at the last election more people from ethnic minority backgrounds voted for Labour than Conservative and it’s natural for Conservatives to explore what are the reasons for it, going beyond just policy issues.
“My father’s time when he came to Britain, I remember him telling me stories about some of those posters ‘If you want a nigger for a neighbour, vote Labour’. These kind of things stick and seep into people’s consciousness and they pass them on to their children.
“I’ve said in the past that what Enoch Powell said, people do remember that. He did not represent the Conservative Party’s opinions then, he got thrown out and even then there was a lot of misperception of what the Conservative Party stood for. But because the perception is there we are right to look at ways to try to change that.”
Mr Javid’s former position of Financial Secretary to the Treasury will be taken by MP Nicky Morgan, who was already in the Treasury in a more junior post.