{"id":612278,"date":"2026-05-30T16:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T16:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/612278\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T16:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T16:00:08","slug":"sajid-javid-says-backing-liz-truss-to-lead-tories-was-his-biggest-political-mistake-sajid-javid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/612278\/","title":{"rendered":"Sajid Javid says backing Liz Truss to lead Tories was his \u2018biggest political mistake\u2019 | Sajid Javid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sajid Javid<\/a> said that supporting Liz Truss in the Conservative leadership contest that ultimately made her prime minister was his \u201cbiggest mistake in politics\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the Hay festival<\/a> in Wales while promoting his memoir, the former chancellor, who is no longer an MP, said there were friends in the Conservative party he remained in contact with.<\/p>\n

Asked whether he still speaks to Truss, Javid responded: \u201cNo. I said \u2018friends\u2019.\u201d Broadcaster Aasmah Mir then asked: \u201cHang on a minute, did you not back her in the first leadership election?\u201d to which Javid replied: \u201cBiggest mistake in politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Boris Johnson\u2019s resignation in 2022, Javid initially launched his own campaign for the Conservative leadership before backing Truss after being eliminated from the contest.<\/a> Truss\u2019s premiership lasted just 49 days in 2022<\/a> after her government\u2019s disastrous mini-budget.<\/p>\n

Javid, who stood down as an MP at the 2024 election, was also asked by Mir what he thought of the swathe of Tory MPs defecting to Reform, to which he responded simply: \u201cGood riddance.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also argued that the quality of Britain\u2019s political class had deteriorated in recent years. He said: \u201cHas the calibre of politicians declined in recent years? Yes. I think dramatically. But it would be unfair \u2026 to blame that just on the politicians. The politicians reflect what you vote for.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, the calibre of the politicians is on the people. If you want different politicians, you\u2019ve got to vote differently \u2013 not just think about their party label or whatever \u2013 but also just about what kind of person they are, what\u2019s really motivating them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Javid, who is now a partner at an investment firm, made the case for increasing MPs\u2019 pay, saying: \u201cWe don\u2019t pay politicians enough to attract people from the top of their game \u2013 and that could be a head teacher, it could be an accountant, it could be a doctor \u2013 to leave their jobs and say, you know what, I want to serve my country.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo to some extent, you get what you pay for \u2026 We should half the number of MPs and double their salaries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Javid served in a number of cabinet roles under David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson, including as home secretary and chancellor. He later returned to government as health secretary under Johnson before stepping down in July 2022, amid a wave of resignations that ultimately led to the end of Johnson\u2019s premiership.<\/p>\n

After resigning as an MP before the 2024 general election, Javid became a partner at Centricus,<\/a> a private equity and asset manager based in Mayfair founded by his former colleagues at Deutsche Bank. He also works as chair of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sajid Javid said that supporting Liz Truss in the Conservative leadership contest that ultimately made her prime minister…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-612278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}