Rochdale-born MP Sajid Javid is the new Health Secretary

Sajid Javid, the new Health Secretary

Rochdale-born politician Sajid Javid MP has been named the new Health Secretary, replacing Matt Hancock, who resigned on Saturday (26 June).

Mr Hancock resigned as Health Secretary after breaching social distancing guidance by kissing a colleague.

Pictures were published by the Sun last week of the former Health Secretary kissing Gina Coladangelo at his London office on 6 May.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, Mr Hancock said he was resigning as “the last thing I would want is for my private life to distract attention from the single-minded focus that is leading us out of this crisis. I want to reiterate my apology for breaking the guidance, and apologise to my family and loved ones for putting them through this.”

He has now been succeeded by Sajid Javid, previously the Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer.

Mr Javid has said he is “honoured to have been asked to serve as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care at this critical time” and “looks forward to contributing to our fight against the pandemic, and serving my country from the cabinet once again.”

Mr Javid's father, Abdul, a bus driver, came to the UK from Pakistan in 1961, reportedly with just £1 in his pocket. He settled in Rochdale, where Mr Javid, born in 1969, and his four brothers were born.

Mr Javid, who has four children of his own, tells of how his father was a Labour supporter until the ‘winter of discontent’ of 1978-9, later becoming a supporter of Mrs Thatcher.

Similarly inspired by what he saw as a turnaround in the country's fortunes under the Conservatives, Mr Javid joined the party in 1988.

Mr Javid became an MP in 2010, and became the first Asian male Conservative cabinet minister in 2014. He has gone on to hold a number of cabinet positions since then.

Before being elected MP, he worked in business and finance. Aged 25, he became a Vice President at Chase Manhattan Bank.

He later moved to Deutsche Bank in London to help build its business in emerging market countries.

Mr Javid left Deutsche Bank as a senior Managing Director in the summer of 2009 to enter politics.