IT HAS been a whirlwind week for Bromsgrove MP Sajid Javid – not only holding onto his seat but being handed a new cabinet role and he was enlisted into the Prime Minister’s National Security Council.
Mr Javid increased his majority to one of the constituency’s biggest ever in the national poll.
The 45-year-old, who was the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport going into the election, was then promoted on Monday in David Cameron’s cabinet reshuffle to Secretary for Business, Innovation and Skills. That was the job held by Vince Cable in the coalition Government before the Conservatives earned their overall majority.
Then on Wednesday, Mr Javid was made a full member of the Prime Minister’s National Security Council.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said the Business Secretary’s addition to the line-up reflected Mr Cameron’s determination to underline ‘the close relationship between economic security and wider national security’.
The NSC, which was established by Mr Cameron in 2010, meets weekly, providing the main forum for discussion between senior ministers and security agency chiefs of the Government’s objectives for national security.
It is chaired by the PM and features a host of other ministers, including the Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary and Defence Secretary.
Other members include the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen Sir Nick Houghton, MI5 director general Andrew Parker, MI6 chief Alex Younger, GCHQ director Robert Hannigan and Mr Cameron’s National Security Adviser Sir Kim Darroch.
Mr Javid said he was delighted to be a part of the new cabinet, adding: “It (the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills) is the department driving economic growth – investing in skills and education to promote trade, boost innovation and help people to start and grow a business.
“Here in Bromsgrove I have championed local businesses and worked with employers to create jobs and opportunities for all.
“Small and medium sized business, like those across the Bromsgrove district, are the life blood of our economy.”
