HAGLEY'S MP and former cabinet minister Sajid Javid has been knighted in the New Year Honours list.

Mr Javid, who is standing down from his Bromsgrove constituency at the next general election, had an extensive career in government serving in six cabinet roles, and becoming the first British Asian to hold one of the great offices of state.

He joins several politicians in receiving honours in the annual list including Labour’s Dame Margaret Beckett, who is standing down at the next election after 40 years representing Derby South.

Mr Javid entered the Commons as the MP for Bromsgrove in May 2010 with a majority of more than 11,000 and has increased his share of the vote in every election since.

Taking on the roles of home secretary, chancellor and health secretary during his career, he also put himself forward for the Tory leadership twice.

It was his sensational resignation from Boris Johnson’s cabinet, together with Rishi Sunak, that spelled the beginning of the end for the former prime minister’s premiership.

He had previously left his chancellor role abruptly in 2020 after being told he must sack all his advisers if he wished to keep his job.

Mr Javid, whose constituency includes Hagley, Clent and Belbroughton, said: “Receiving this knighthood is a tremendous honour.

"The opportunity to serve the public is an immense privilege. To do that, and receive this honour, would have felt almost impossible to the boy living above the family shop in Bristol.

"It has been made possible because of the dedication of everyone I have worked with, the support of my family and the people of Bromsgrove District for electing me.

"With this new responsibility, I will continue to campaign on the issues and causes I care deeply about.”

Mr Javid is the son of a bus driver who arrived in England from Pakistan in the 1960s with just a pound in his pocket.

Born in Rochdale and raised in Bristol, he went to a state school and studied economics and politics at Exeter University.

Dame Margaret, who was the first woman to serve as foreign secretary, will become a Dame Grand Cross after already being made a Dame Commander in 2013.

First elected in Lincoln in 1974, the 80-year-old served as acting leader of the Labour Party in 1994 after the sudden death of John Smith.

That year she ran for election to lead the party full time, but lost to Tony Blair, who would later make her foreign secretary.

Labour’s Siobhain McDonagh, a party stalwart who has been an MP since 1997, has also been recognised and will be made Dame Commander. Her sister Margaret McDonagh, who died earlier this year, was Labour’s first female general secretary.

Makerfield MP Yvonne Fovargue, who sits on the Privileges and the Standards committees, becomes a CBE.

Her Labour colleague, Mayor of Bristol Marvin Rees has been made an OBE.

Conservative backbencher Mark Garnier, who represents Wyre Forest, has also been made an OBE.

Erewash MP Maggie Throup, who served as vaccines minister between 2021 and 2022, becomes an OBE.