Sajid Javid takes over as UK’s new Health Minister after Matt Hancock resigns

Former UK finance minister Sajib Javid will be the new Health Minister after Matt Hancock resigned over breach of COVID safety protocols, Reuters reported on Saturday quoting Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s office as saying.

The new Health Minister Sajid Javid, former chancellor of the exchequer, had resigned as UK’s finance minister last year after he refused Boris Johnson’s demand to fire his political advisers, Reuters reported. Sajid Javid walked back into the office of the state as the health minister on Saturday.

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The former finance minister now has the prime responsibility of taking on reigns of the UK’s medical infrastructure amid the COVID-19 pandemic, arguably the toughest recent medical crises.

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Javid will have to steer the nation of the pandemic and also need to catch up on a vast backlog of ministry operations, reported The Guardian.

Matt Hancock served as Secretary of State for Health and Social care from 2018 to 2021 but resigned from his post on Saturday after he broke the government’s own coronavirus restrictions during an affair with a close aide. Hancock in a letter to the Prime Minister quit the National Health Services and emphasised a previously issued apology.