Friday, March 29, 2024
HomeNewspeopleA fast-track first year

A fast-track first year

-

Bromsgrove MP Sajid Javid

Village MP Sajid Javid has been quick to find his feet both here and at Westminster.

The Sajid Javid who breezes into The Lounge internet café, Alvechurch, for a chat is noticeably more relaxed than he was when we first met just over a year ago before he was elected as our MP.

Not that he has ever been short on confidence; he just seems more at ease with his chosen path. After all, who wouldn’t have been a little bewildered after giving up a highly successful international banking career to immerse themselves in the pit of British politics at election time?

Despite reassurances that the Tory always gets the seat around here, he was genuinely apprehensive about the result. As it was, he got more votes than expected last May and increased the Conservative majority, although that was mainly down to the plunge in the Labour vote. 

“It is good when you start in a job that from day one you have got the endorsement of the electors,” says Sajid. “We had more candidates than usual – I think it was a record number. It was a very friendly and good-natured contest. It never descended into dirt and even the BNP lady was lovely.

“I am quite happy, however, that they lost their deposits,” he adds, with a smile.

Sajid has been house-hunting around the area and has come close to finding somewhere a few times – on The Village side of the constituency, it is believed – although he will still be keeping his current house in the capital.

“I still have my family home in London. My kids will stay in their schools in London, but I am also going to buy a house in the constituency.”

He says that, while clearly ambitious for higher office at Westminster, he has made the constituency his main focus and is holding surgeries across the whole area. “Constituency work is my priority. If you look after your base, they will look after you.

“They are the things that are not political. People come to see you or write or email, usually about some problem they have got with a public service. They have reached the end of their tether and wonder if their MP can help them.

“I’ve found that I have got a loud voice as an MP. I say, I can’t promise you anything, but I will use my loud voice to try to help.

“It is full of surprises, whatever you have done in life before. I was a banker for 19 years and so this is really different.

“I get 100 letters and emails a day from constituents, seven days a week – so that’s 700 a week. I write back to them all and I write to the relevant person or agency and then I write back to the constituent again when I hear something, so daily I must send out about 300 letters.”

It’s a far cry from his banker’s corner office in some glitzy city.

“I have exchanged 300 staff for two and a half,” he laughs. “But my staff are great and are very organised.

“That’s the kind of workload I have now and that’s been a surprise, but talking to other MPs, it’s not unusual.

“I try not to do things on Sundays; it is the one day I get to be with my family and it is special.”

One of Sajid’s first pledges as an MP was to publish every expense claim that he submits on his website (https://www.sajidjavid.com), adding: “I don’t claim any second-home allowances or anything like that.”

At the same time, he recognises the need to encourage people from all works of life into politics.

“You have to find the balance because you don’t want parliament full of rich people. You need the balance where anyone can become an MP and it not be determined by having independent wealth.”

Sajid is very keen to do his bit to remove the whiff from politics: “I decided I was just going to be straight with people and I think people appreciate it.”

He tells a story of when he was campaigning, handing out leaflets on Bromsgrove railway station, and a man said to him he worked in further education and he wouldn’t vote for him because the Tories would bring in cuts that would put his job at risk.

“I told him that, yes, there would be cuts and, yes, there would be job losses, and yes, his might be one of them and the man walked away down the platform – only to march back a little while later and say that now I’d been straight with him he’d have to vote for me!

“I think that some politicians have forgotten that people like honesty.”

Away from his constituency, Sajid has also been hard at work in London doing what some might regard as climbing the greasy pole, but he sees as serving his country.

“I didn’t go into this just to be on the back-benches. I went into this to make a difference and to do that you have to be at the heart of Government,” he explains.

As soon as he entered Parliament, he got on to a Select Committee on work and pensions and was then quickly spotted as a rising star and promoted by the Prime Minister to be Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister for Further Education, Skills and Lifelong Learning.

“I got that in five months when normally it takes five years,” says Sajid, as if it was just what he expected to happen.

“Basically, I am the right-hand man of the Minister. It has been a real eye-opener for me. It was the first time I got to work with civil servants. There are about 100 ministers and 20,000 civil servants.

“I get to input on policy. One of the first big ideas was apprenticeships. There are going to be 250,000 apprenticeships introduced and I have been involved in how this will work.

“As a PPS I get to see practical things happening which you don’t see on the backbenches. You actually feel part of government,” he adds.

Sajid is working very hard at the job in hand, although he clearly has an eye on further promotion. “I want to make a difference and the best way to make a difference for your constituents and for your country has to be in the Cabinet.”

One area of great interest to his constituents and the country is in local planning and, specifically around here, the Bromsgrove Draft Core Strategy.

Asked what he thinks about the suggestions contained in the document produced by Bromsgrove District Council proposing Development Sites in and around villages, he says: “I think the good thing is that it is a consultation and that local people are making the decision about what they want and where they want it.

“That doesn’t mean that everyone will be happy; you will have to have some development some time somewhere.”

Sajid is putting a lot of faith in legislation expected to come into force next year:  “When the Localism Bill comes through, the planning authority has a lot more scope to turn down applications.

“Developers know this – they hate the Localism Bill – and they are putting in planning applications right now. This is happening up and down the country.”

On the draft strategy, he says: “If enough people say we don’t want this and give good reasons, then the council will have to listen. It is always worth writing to me because I can then get together 100 or 200 letters.”

Surprisingly, Sajid’s biggest postbag so far was on the idea of nationalising the forests: “I got 200 letters and we don’t even have a protected forest in the constituency.

“It is the biggest thing in my mail box and it is because so many people wrote to their MPs that the Government back-tracked. That’s why I encourage people to write to me.”

And anyone who writes can be sure they will get a letter back from a man who gave up a glittering career in international banking to try to forge another at Westminster.

You don’t doubt him when he says: “I am here for the long term and not just for a bit of fun.”