News / Politics
Sajid Javid focuses on Bristol roots in campaign video
There are some familiar sights in the campaign video as Sajid Javid officially launches his Conservative leadership bid.
The home secretary and prominent Tory front-runner puts a strong emphasis on his Bristol roots as footage shows him taking a trip down memory lane on Stapleton Road, where he grew up.
Javid angered residents, business owners and community leaders over comments he made about the area in April, when he described it as “Britain’s most dangerous street” – a sentiment branded outdated and unhelpful.
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But it is Stapleton Road that features in the family-focused campaign video, as the 49-year-old visits the former ladies’ clothes shop owned by his parents and the flat above in which he lived with his family.
Launching his leadership bid on Tuesday with the hashtag #teamsaj, Javid said: “I got into politics because I love my country and I want to give people more opportunities than I had. I always wanted to make my family proud.”
The son of Pakistani-born immigrants, who arrived in the UK in 1961 with £1 in their pocket and went on to run their own business, Javid was born in Rochdale and moved to Stapleton Road in Easton when he was four.
He now lives between his constituency in Bromsgrove and London with his wife and four children.
On his campaign website, Javid describes Stapleton Road, where he grew up, as “notorious”.
He writes about his fight against racism and “the bigotry of low expectations that holds back so many children from working class background”, as well as his education at Downend School – where teachers barred him from taking maths at O-level and he was told he should leave school at 16 because “that’s what kids like him were supposed to do”.
He also mentions his subsequent success at Filton Technical College, which enabled him to become the first in his family to go to university.
The home secretary arrives at Temple Meads
Assuring voters that he is the man to deliver Brexit, Javid continues: “I want to give back to the country that’s given me so many opportunities. I want to seize the opportunity to be the next prime minister.”
Nominations for the Tory leadership race opened and closed on June 10, following Theresa May’s resignation.
There are currently ten contenders, with prominent Brexiteer Boris Johnson the clear front-runner. Javid is the middle of the pack, with odds at 25/1, according to Paddy Power.
He has the backing of Welsh Conservative MP Stephen Crabb, who says Javid is “the kind of person who can speak to all communities from all backgrounds in a way that few Conservative politicians can”.
Leader of the Scottish Conservatives Ruth Davidson has also declared him “the man for the job”.
But Lib Dem parliamentary candidate for Bristol West James Cox argues Javid as prime minister would present “a danger to Bristolians”.
Cleo Lake, a Green councillor for Cotham and former lord mayor, also criticised Javid’s record, tweeting: “Rethink your position in upholding policies that tear families apart and discriminate. Stop deporting people to their deaths.
“Please do more for working people and grass roots communities of all colours and backgrounds. I’m proud to be Bristolian but I can’t yet be proud of you.”
https://twitter.com/CleoDanceBaton/status/1138377902297362432
Javid voted remain in the 2016 EU referendum, but now says he is committed to delivering Brexit. He was appointed home secretary in April 2018 following the resignation of Amber Rudd over the Windrush scandal.
Main photo taken from Sajid Javid’s campaign video
Read more: Sajid Javid’s Bristol roots
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