Sajid Javid talks to Alan Johnson

Former Home Secretary, Health Secretary and Chancellor Sir Sajid Javid talks about his memoir of a childhood marked by poverty and racism and the path that took him to serve as a secretary of state in six government departments.

Javid’s family moved from Punjab to the UK in the 1960s and clung to many of its Indo-Pakistani traditions. Javid describes a childhood that was marked by poverty, racism and the tension of trying to conform to two different cultures.  It led to run-ins with the police, trouble at school and the risk of estrangement from his family as he rejected an arranged marriage in favour of choosing the woman he loved. Javid’s story is one of a rise from adversity. It is also a tribute to his parents, who gave everything, and his brothers who struggled alongside him.

‘This is a memoir unlike anything you will read from a politician. Sajid Javid tells his story with eloquence and wit’ Alan Johnson

Javid was Conservative MP for Bromsgrove between May 2010 and July 2014. He served in the governments of David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson. Before that he had a career in the City, where he rose to become a board member of Deutsche Bank International. Here he talks to former Labour MP Alan Johnson, who also held many Cabinet positions including as Home Secretary and Health Secretary, and who is author of four acclaimed memoirs including This Boy: A Memoir of a Childhood, winner of the Orwell Prize and Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize.