Sajid Javid

After the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse drama, some investors are understandably asking if we’re on the brink of another 2008-style banking crisis. I’ve had an entire career in politics and government since that crash. Hard lessons have been learned and there can be no complacency – so often, trouble comes from areas we don’t expect. But we should also be careful not to ignore some of the key differences and underlying strengths in the current situation. Unfounded panics can become self-fulfilling. If we allow that, everyone other than a few lucky speculators will stand to lose out. Credit Suisse was not typical: it had been an outlier for months.

Mr Speaker, I’m grateful for your permission to make this statement. Yesterday we began our day together. You, I, my Right Honourable Friend the Prime Minister, and colleagues from across this House, broke bread together at the parliamentary prayer breakfast and listened to the words of Reverend Les Issac, who spoke about the responsibility that comes with leadership - the responsibility to serve the interests of others above your own and to seek the common good of your party, your community and above all your country. Colleagues will be forgiven for sharing my sense of deja vu. Despite what it may seem, I have never been one of life’s quitters. I didn’t quit when I was told that boys like me didn’t do maths.

Below is Sajid Javid’s letter to Boris Johnson, explaining why he is quitting as Health Secretary. Prime Minister, it was a privilege to have been asked to come back into government to serve as Secretary of State for Health & Social Care at such a critical time for our country. The tone you set as a leader, and the values you represent, reflect on your colleagues, your party and ultimately the country I have given every ounce of energy to this task, and am incredibly proud of what we have achieved. The UK has led the world in learning to live with Covid. Thanks to the amazing rollout of our booster programme, investment in treatments, and innovations in the way we deliver healthcare, the British people have enjoyed months more freedom than other comparable countries.

You always remember when a prime minister calls you to ask you to take on a new role, and you remember the reaction of your loved ones, too. My mum was delighted — like many Asian mothers she wanted at least one of her five sons to be a doctor and she was thrilled that I would be, as she put it, ‘working in healthcare’ after all these years. My wife was concerned about the pressures of the role and what it might mean for our family. And my daughter was worried that I might not look the pinnacle of health walking through the famous Downing Street door, due to my limp after an unfortunate slip during ‘walk your children to school week’.

As every Chancellor knows, behind every figure in the Treasury lie thousands of human stories. At times like these, saving lives is the first, unmitigated priority. This means releasing whatever resources the NHS requires. Hospitality, retail, the self-employed: otherwise healthy enterprises of every description are facing an existential threat. Supporting businesses with government-backed loans is a good start, but it won’t be enough. Temporary tax cuts are also needed: ‘No need to pay’ rather than ‘Time to pay’. If we want the economy to surge back once the danger has passed, these measures will need to be rolled out soon and at top speed. The economic package thus far is only the opening salvo in the fightback against coronavirus.

After quitting as Chancellor earlier today, Sajid Javid has published his letter of resignation to Boris Johnson. Here’s what he wrote: Dear Prime Minister, It has been a privilege to serve as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Since being elected as the MP for Bromsgrove ten years ago I have had the huge honour of holding several ministerial roles – running five departments, including two of the Great Offices of State. I regret that I could not accept the conditions attached to the reappointment While I am grateful for your continued trust and offer to continue in this role, I regret that I could not accept the conditions attached to the reappointment.

Today is a historic moment for our country. After 85 days of hard graft, the Prime Minister has brought home a new Brexit deal – and I believe MPs should vote for it. Despite being told it was impossible, we have successfully re-opened the old Withdrawal Agreement and removed the Irish border backstop. In its place is a new agreement that maintains the open border all sides wanted while ensuring the United Kingdom takes back control of its money, borders, trade and laws. As MPs gather today – the first time the Commons has sat on a Saturday since the Falklands – they should know the world is watching.

The first time I felt like an outsider was when I was six years old. My cousin told me we needed to change our walking route to her school because of the ‘bad kids’ who supported the National Front. That was the first time. But not the last. When I was at secondary school, the other kids told me all about their summer holidays. I’d only ever go to Rochdale but pretended I’d been abroad like them, because they couldn’t tell if I had a tan. When I wanted to do the O-levels and A-levels I needed although I had a couple of inspiring teachers who I’ll be forever grateful to I was told that kids like me should know their limits and stay in their lane.

It’s a huge privilege to be standing here as Home Secretary. Now I know the question on your mind. So let’s just deal with it upfront. Yes, I did watch Bodyguard. No, it wasn’t very realistic. For a start, my codename is not Lavender, and she didn’t even do the power stance! But let me tell you about another story. A story which started in the 1960s. Abdul-Ghani Javid left Pakistan and landed in Heathrow. He spent what little he had on a coach ticket, had his first night here in Birmingham, then continued up north to Lancashire to find work in a cotton mill. After standing outside the mill for weeks, he got that first job, and started a family.

Although I joined the Conservative Party during my time at Exeter University, it was my upbringing and early life that shaped my political consciousness. Abdul-Ghani Javid (or, as he was known to me, Dad) arrived in the UK in 1961 at 23 years of age. His family lost everything during the partition of India and their move to Pakistan, so my father’s motivation was quite simple – he wanted to work in Britain and provide the means for his brothers back in Pakistan to be educated. Disembarking at Heathrow with a £1 note in his pocket (which his father, touchingly but mistakenly, had said would see him through his first month in the UK), my father made his way up north and found a job in a Rochdale cotton mill. Happy to be employed, he nevertheless strived for more.

With the economy recovering and Labour floundering, it was a poor PMQs yesterday for Ed Miliband. And the source of his trouble was sitting right next to him – his own Shadow Chancellor. After a disastrous response to the Autumn Statement, Ed Miliband is rumoured to have given Ed Balls nine months to sort out Labour’s economic policy. Clearly riled, Ed Balls has given an interview to the FT this morning, the raison d’etre explicitly being to try and regain some credibility on the economy. And so, somewhat wearily, we have the re-announcement of a ‘zero-based spending review’, six months on from its first outing in June. Try as Balls may, if we needed any reminding that Labour have nothing to say on the economy, this interview certainly does the job.