Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Can Sajid Javid’s leadership bid stand out from the crowd?

Sajid Javid at his leadership launch (Credit: Getty images)

What did Sajid Javid pitch himself as this afternoon? Well, the candidate of tax cuts, along with all the others apart from Rishi Sunak. But given everyone is engaged in an arms race on how big and how soon their tax cuts will be, there is largely Conservative consensus now that these are going to happen. So what does the former Health Secretary think will make him stand out from the (very big) crowd?

The central message of Javid’s campaign launch was that the Conservatives are facing an existential threat if they don’t change


Javid had an extremely sweaty launch today as the temperature in London rose and the heat in the contest got worse. He can’t really claim to be an outsider, even though he has a hobby of resigning from governments, and even though he was the first of the cabinet to quit on Boris Johnson last week. Indeed, he accepted at his launch that ‘perhaps’ he could have stepped down sooner, saying: ‘Perhaps I should have left earlier.

Isabel Hardman
Written by
Isabel Hardman
Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of The Spectator and author of Why We Get the Wrong Politicians. She also presents Radio 4’s Week in Westminster.

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