Why Sajid Javid could end up at the top of the Tory tree

Sajid Javid’s promotion to Culture Secretary will not surprise his many fans. And it underlines an advantage that the Conservative party has over Labour right now – the talent in its back benchers. The Tories, quite simply, have far more MPs who could be Prime Minister – thanks to the hugely successful recruitment process that David Cameron ran after becoming leader . One of them is Sajid Javid, who is interviewed by the Mail on Sunday today – this was done (as ever) months earlier by James Forsyth in the Spectator (his interview here). They’re both worth reading, as I suspect Javid is one of these guys we’ll be hearing a lot more from in coming years.

Javid’s father lived what Michael Howard called the “British dream“, coming to Britain from Pakistan with £1 to his name then working day and night to give his family better chance than he had.This worked, and aged 25 his son Sajid was the youngest-ever vice-president of Chase Manhattan bank.