Conservative party heavyweight Sajid Javid has been named as the incoming health secretary after Matt Hancock was forced to resign for breaking Covid rules.
A former Chancellor of the Exchequer, he will replace Mr Hancock as the UK tries to end lockdown restrictions and complete the rollout of the coronavirus vaccination programme.
Mr Javid, who acknowledges his “Muslim heritage” but does not currently practise a religion, was one of the contenders for the party leadership in the election campaign that Boris Johnson won.
As Chancellor, the UK equivalent of finance minister, Mr Javid resigned after a clash with Prime Minister Johnson over the hiring of department aides.
Mr Javid said he had “no option" but to resign as Mr Johnson attached conditions which "no self-respecting minister would accept".
The Member of Parliament for Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, is married to Laura and the couple has four children.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson looks through a microscope during a visit to a lab at The National Institute for Biological Standards in South Mimms, east of England. Getty Images -
Members of the public, some without masks, throng the market in Kendal in Cumbria, northwest England, where surge testing has been deployed following the outbreak of a variant of the coronavirus. AFP -
People queue outside a mass vaccination centre for those aged 18 and over at the London Stadium. Reuters -
First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon receives her second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine at the NHS Louisa Jordan vaccine centre in Glasgow. AP -
People inside the stone circle during Summer Solstice at Stonehenge. The prehistoric monument, a UNESCO heritage site, had been closed for the celebrations due to the coronavirus lockdown, but people ignored the lockdown. AP -
Anti-vaccine protestors gather outside a mass vaccination centre at the London Stadium. Reuters -
Members of the public queue to enter a temporary testing centre set up a car park in Kendal in Cumbria. AFP -
A person receives a vaccine dose at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. Reuters -
Medical staff work inside a mass vaccination centre at the London Stadium. Reuters -
Staff at a vaccination centre address queries from the public in London. EPA
Mr Javid’s Pakistani parents arrived in the UK in 1961, where his father worked as a bus driver in Rotherham before setting up his clothing business, Scallywags, in Bristol.
He is the middle sibling of five high-flying Javid children.
His brother Basit is deputy assistant commissioner at London’s Metropolitan police; Atif is a property entrepreneur and Khalid is the founder of property finance firm Blackstone Financial Solutions.
The eldest brother Tariq, 52, was found dead in a Sussex hotel in 2019 having taken his own life. Tariq had been a successful retail entrepreneur.
Mr Javid has spoken of his personal memories of racial abuse as a child.
He graduated from Exeter University with a degree in Economics and Politics in 1991 - the first of his family to attend university.
After university, he enjoyed a stratospheric careers into the upper echelons of the financial sector, starting with a spell at New York’s Chase Manhattan bank.
On his return to the UK, he built a career at Deutsche Bank International, rising to the board of directors.
