Javid says that the ‘short answer’ to the question of why he abandoned banking for politics is because ‘I wanted to be able to look back on my life, when I’m a lot older, and say I’ve done something valu­able with my life. If my motive were an easy life, worldly goods, lots of holidays and so on, then I could have carried on with that. But I know myself well enough to know that if I came to retire and that was all I’d ever done with my life, that would not be enough for me. There had to be something else – and politics was my way of doing it.’