Various banking colleagues have expressed how surprised they were that Javid chose to go into politics, but he had been convinced that he wanted to do so ever since he was a student. He had previously been selected to be Conservative candidate for Brent North in 2001 but stood down as he found it impossible to combine politics with a banking career and a young family;  he and his wife Laura have four children.Whatever Livingstone may want to believe, Javid's time as a banker marks him out as an exception on the Conservative benches: few younger MPs have had any career outside politics and its related areas of public affairs and lobbying.

Javid has risen rapidly in government. He was made PPS to George Osborne in 2011, became Economic Secretary to the Treasury in 2012 and was swiftly promoted  to Financial Secretary. It is said that his talents were noted when he pointed out many of the pitfalls of the ill-considered 2012 "omnishambles" Budget before it was delivered. His advice at the time was ignored.

On his appointment to the Cabinet Javid's supposed philistinism has caused much anguish, perhaps best summed up by a noted music critic's blog post, "A banker is the new UK Culture Secretary."

There is, of course, no causal link between being a banker and a lack of enthusiasm for the arts, although Javid is not known to have previously shown much interest in culture. But is this a bad thing? He has been put on a rapid immersion course in the arts and as Polly Toynbee wrote in the Guardian, "With the arm's-length Arts Council to make judgments, the minister's job is not to opine on the arts. What's more, it's a category error to expect politicians to have natural empathy with, or relevant experience in, their departments." A disinterested minister is exactly what the arts need. Javid has also made it clear that he intends not to move further down the road of press regulation and is happy to work with the newspaper's new regulatory model.

There has been talk of Javid being a future prime minister. At this stage of a political career such speculation is usually disastrous, but there is every reason to believe that Javid will go far — and perhaps even right to the top.