When Sajid Javid stood for the Tory leadership in 2019, the then home secretary told his party they had the chance to choose an ‘outsider’ as prime minister.
The Bromsgrove MP, who is one of five sons born to a Pakistani bus driver, described how he had felt like his ‘face didn’t fit’ at various times throughout his life.
This included during his childhood in Bristol, his university days in Exeter, his high-earning banking career in the City of London, his marriage to ‘the love of my life’ and – later – when he entered politics.
Mr Javid’s time at Westminster – which he is now leaving after announcing his intention to stand down at the next general election – saw him break new ground as he rose to some of the top jobs in Government, including as the first home secretary of Muslim heritage.
But the 52-year-old is not the only high-flier in his family, with the Javid brothers also including a top police chief, a property investor, a supermarket chain boss, and a financial adviser.
Tragedy struck in 2018 when the eldest Javid sibling, Tariq, took his own life.
Sajid recently spoke of how he still wonders if ‘there’s anything I could have done’ to save his brother’s life.
The Javid brothers’ parents moved to Britain from the Punjab in the 1960s to Rochdale, Lancashire, before moving to Bristol where they lived in a two-bedroom flat.
Sajid shared a room with his parents along with one of his other brothers.
Sajid Javid has announced his intention to stand down as Bromsgrove MP at the next general election
In 1997, Mr Javid married his wife Laura King (pictured together in 2016), who he first met during a summer job at a Bristol insurance office – or ‘love over a stapler’, as he once remarked
Mr Javid and his wife have four children and live in Fulham, south west London, with their cavapoo Bailey (pictured above)
He has often referred to his father’s job as a bus driver, including when congratulating Labour’s Sadiq Khan on his election as London mayor.
‘From one son of a Pakistani bus driver to another, congratulations,’ Mr Javid wrote on Twitter in May 2016.
He has also previously spoken being a six-year-old interpreter for his Pakistani mother, who did not speak English for many years after arriving in Britain.
Mr Javid has described how, during his childhood, he had to change his walking route to school to avoid the ‘bad kids’ who supported the National Front.
He has also spoken of how he ‘pretended to go abroad’ during the holidays so others ‘couldn’t tell if I had a tan or not’, despite only ever going to Rochdale in the summer.
After attending a Bristol state comprehensive, Mr Javid went to a technical college before studying economics and politics at the University of Exeter.
During a 20-year business career, Mr Javid became the ‘go-to guy for managing multibillion dollar international deals’ after swiftly rising up the ranks at Deutsche Bank.
He is said to have earned around £3 million-a-year while a top banker.
Earlier this year, Mr Javid admitted he held ‘non-dom’ tax status for six years during his business career, which allowed him to legally avoid tax on overseas earnings.
This is thought to be on the grounds that his father was born in Pakistan.
In 1997, Mr Javid married his wife Laura King, who he first met during a summer job at a Bristol insurance office – or ‘love over a stapler’, as he once remarked.
In the past, Mr Javid has spoken of how some in his ‘wider family’ had told him he shouldn’t marry a white Christian and should ‘stick to my own’.
Mr Javid and his wife have four children and live in Fulham, south west London, with their cavapoo Bailey.
Mr Javid ran for the Tory leadership in 2019 following Theresa May’s resignation as PM after her Brexit deal was rejected by MPs
Mr Javid came fourth in the 2019 Tory leadership contest behind eventual winner Boris Johnson, Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove
Mr Javid was appointed Chancellor by Mr Johnson in July 2019
But he spent less than seven months in charge of the Treasury when he resigned in February 2020 after being told to sack all his advisers
He was first elected in Parliament at the 2010 election as MP for Bromsgrove, in Worcestershire.
And it was after only a couple of years at Westminster before he entered David Cameron’s coalition government as a Treasury minister.
His rapid rise then saw him become a Cabinet minister – the first from the 2010 intake of MPs to be appointed to the top level of Government – when he became Culture Secretary in 2014.
After the 2015 general election, when the Tories won a majority, Mr Javid became Business Secretary.
As someone who was viewed as one of the most eurosceptic members of the Cabinet, it had been assumed Mr Javid would back the Vote Leave campaign at the 2016 EU referendum.
But he angered Brexiteers by siding with Mr Cameron and campaigning for Remain.
He later joined Theresa May’s Cabinet as housing secretary when she became PM to replace Mr Cameron in the wake of British voters choosing to quit the EU.
And when Amber Rudd resigned over the Windrush scandal in 2018, Mr Javid became the first British Asian to take on one of the ‘great offices of state’ as home secretary.
His time at the Home Office saw him disown the ‘hostile environment’ approach to illegal immigration.
He then took on another of the four great offices of state when he was appointed Chancellor when Boris Johnson replaced Mrs May as PM in 2019.
Mr Javid is one of five brothers to Pakistani Punjab-born parents who migrated to the UK in the 1960s. Basit Javid is deputy assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan Police
Atif Javid (left) is a property investor and developer in Bristol, while Khalid Javid is a financial advisor
Tariq Javid, a supermarket chain boss, was found dead in a hotel room in July 2018
Mr Javid had run for the Tory leadership himself against Mr Johnson – when he told his party they had the chance to choose an ‘outsider’ as PM – but he came fourth behind Mr Johnson, Jeremy Hunt and Michael Gove.
Mr Javid spent less than seven months in charge of the Treasury when he resigned in February 2020.
He had refused to sack all of his advisers as part of Mr Johnson’s bid to create a joint No10-No11 economic unit – a move widely assumed to have been masterminded by the PM’s controversial chief adviser Dominic Cummings.
Mr Javid spent more than a year on the backbenches in the House of Commons before rejoining Mr Johnon’s government – and after Mr Cummings’s own departure from No10 – in June 2021.
He replaced Matt Hancock, who had been forced to resign after breaching Covid guidance by kissing a senior aide in his office, as health secretary.
Just over a year later, Mr Javid quit Mr Johnson’s government for a second time in the wake of the Partygate scandals and over No10’s handling of sexual misconduct allegations against deputy chief whip Chris Pincher.
His resignation as health secretary came within minutes of Rishi Sunak’s own resignation as Chancellor, although the pair denied they had coordinated their actions.
The bombshell news accelerated the revolt against Mr Johnson and, after he was finally toppled from power, Mr Javid launched his second Tory leadership bid.
Mr Javid rejoined Mr Johnon’s government in June 2021 when he replaced Matt Hancock as health secretary
Mr Javid’s second Tory leadership bid this year was less successful than his first and he withdrew from the contest just moments before nominations closed
Yet Mr Javid’s second tilt at the top job was less successful than his first and he withdrew from the contest just moments before nominations closed.
He went on to endorse Liz Truss as Mr Johnson’s successor, despite having previously worked together with her rival Mr Sunak at the Treasury.
But there was no return to the Government for Mr Javid under either Ms Truss’s leadership or, when her premiership spectacularly collapsed after just 44 days, under her successor Mr Sunak.
He has now announced his intention to stand down as an MP at the next general election.
Mr Javid described being the Bromsgrove MP and serving in Government as ‘the privilege of my life’.