When Sajid Javid comes to write his memoirs there will doubtless be the usual praise for the three prime ministers who set him on the ladder of his political journey.
From David Cameron to Boris Johnson via Theresa May, each have played their part in promoting the ambitious son of an immigrant bus driver.
But the man known to friends and foes alike as ‘the Saj’ may well reflect that the figure he really owes his resurrection to the Cabinet as Health Secretary to, is not the current occupant of No 10 at all, but the PM’s wife Carrie.
Javid, a 51-year old former banker, does of course have the most impressive CV: a former Chancellor, Home Secretary and Business Secretary, he has held the top brief at both Housing and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and junior posts inside the Treasury.
Indeed even though he has been out of government for 16 months – his time at the Exchequer was so brief he never delivered a Budget – he is one the most experienced ministers on Boris’s team. And it was always a betting certainty that he would at some stage return to front line politics.
Bonds of friendship with Mrs Johnson – the former Carrie Symonds – however may ultimately prove to be more useful than mere administrative expertise. Had he not enjoyed kindship with Carrie would his progress have been quite so assured?
It is why many observers were suggesting that his appointment to replace the hapless Matt Hancock owed as much to Carrie’s influence over her husband than his mere availability.
