Javid describes how he ‘reaches out’ to his late brother

SAJID JAVID has revealed that he still talks to his brother Tariq in his head, after his older sibling took his own life two years ago.

Speaking about his family’s tragedy for the first time, the former chancellor revealed that it feels as if “something is just permanently missing”. An inquest heard the supermarket boss killed himself because he felt he would “not last long” because of stomach problems.

Mr Javid recalled: “One of my other brothers called me. I remember I was in a car coming back from seeing my mum. I couldn’t believe it. It was a very sad moment. Then I was just thinking about my mum, how we were going to break this news to her.” The family “pulled together” after the loss, and the Bromsgrove MP said he still talks to Tariq in his head.

Mr Javid told The Times: “It was his birthday a couple of weeks ago and... I reached out to him. When I had the racist attack in school at the age of 11, he was the one to come and pick me up from the ground, take me to the headmaster, insist that the headmaster does something.

“There were lots of moments like that and that’s probably what you miss the most, to have someone there who’s always looking out for you.”

He also urged Rishi Sunak, his successor, to be fiscally responsible: “It’s right to spend now to bridge the economy to the post-covid era. But it’s important to make sure that in the medium to long term we keep our reputation for sound money, low-borrowing, balanced budgets.”

Mr Javid also admitted that “things haven’t quite turned out” as the Prime Minister would have hoped, after saying that he lobbied Boris Johnson to ditch the algorithm system that saw thousands of A-levels downgraded.