Sajid Javid, one of five sons of Pakistani immigrant parents, on Saturday was appointed Britain’s new health secretary a short while after Matt Hancock resigned from the post.
Javid, the former chancellor of the exchequer and home secretary, replaced Hancock after the former health secretary breached coronavirus social distancing rules by engaging in intimate acts with his aide.
“The Queen has been pleased to approve the appointment of the Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care,” a short press release from the government read.
Under No 10’s timetable, which Hancock helped construct, intimate contact with people not within the same household was discouraged until May 17 as part of the 4-step process. However, CCTV footage revealed that Hancock had interactions with his aide Gina Coladangelo on May 6, just over a week before the official opening of the next step.
Javid, who is an MP for the constituency of Bromsgrove in Birmingham, served as the home secretary from 2018 to 2019 and then as chancellor of the exchequer until he resigned from the government in February last year following a row with the prime minister.
Javid was born in Rochdale, Lancashire, one of five sons of Pakistani immigrant parents. Javid’s family were farmers from the village of Rajana near Toba Tek Singh, Punjab, from where they migrated to the UK in the 1960s. His father worked as a bus driver. His mother did not speak English until she had been in the UK for ten years
