Profile: Jo Johnson and Sajid Javid

Jo Johnson Minister of State for Universities and Science

Jo Johnson is the youngest of four children including brother, Mayor of London and new MP for Uxbridge, Boris Johnson. His father, former Conservative MEP, Stanley Johnson recently said how proud he was Johnson had been made Higher Education Minister in a radio interview, but when he heard his son was also the minister for science he commented “Good Heavens. I don’t think he knows anything about science.”

Johnson began his eduction in Brussels at the European School in Uccle. He also attended The Hall School in Hampstead, London, Ashdown House School in East Sussex and Eton College. He read Modern History at Balliol College, Oxford in 1991. At the university, he edited the student magazine, Isis and was a member of the Bullingdon Club alongside George Osborne. Johnson also gained an MBA from INSEAD in 2000 and a licence spéciale with distinction in 1995 from the Institut d'Etudes Européennes at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, where he was a Wiener-Anspach Fellow.

While he worked for a short time as an investment banker at Deutsche Bank, Johnson has spent most of his working life as a journalist. He began his career at the Financial Times in 1997 where he worked for over a decade in various roles including Associate Editor and Editor of The Lex Column, South Asia Bureau Chief and Paris Correspondent.

Johnson has penned several books including 'Reconnecting Britain and India: Ideas for an Enhanced Partnership' (Academic Foundation 2011, with Dr Rajiv Kumar), and 'The Man who Tried to Buy the World' (Penguin, 2003).

Since 2010, Johnson has been the MP for Orpington. He sat on the Public Accounts Committee from May 2010 to September 2012, he also served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary to Mark Prisk, Minister of State for Business and Enterprise in 2012 and was appointed as an Assistant Government Whip in September of that year. In 2013 Johnson was made head of the Downing Street Policy Unit.

The new minister has made clear that he would like students not to be included in the government’s net migration figures. Speaking in a Financial Times article from 2012 he said that the government faces tough policy choices on international students; "The difference these choices make to the education sector, to Britain’s soft power around the world and to the UK economy is very significant." Johnson is also known to be pro-Europe.

Follow Jo Johnson on Twitter @JoJohnsonMP

Sajid Javid Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills

Sajid Javid, one of five sons, was born in Rochdale, Lancashire and spent his early life in Bristol. Javid studied at Downed School a state comprehensive, Filton Technical College and the University of Exeter, Devon, where he studied economics and politics and was active in student politics. 

At 25, Javid became the youngest vice-president in the history of Chase Manhattan Bank, New York. He joined Deutsche Bank in 2000 where he worked in various roles, including senior Managing Director, until 2009. Javid is a trustee of the London Early Years Foundation and was a governor of Normand Croft Community School. He has also led an expedition to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro to support Help The Aged.

Javid has been the MP for Bromsgrove since 2010. He has led a variety of roles in his relatively short time in parliament including Minister of State for Further Education at BIS, Parliamentary Private Secretary to Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne and Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and Minister for Equalities. He was the first MP to have been elected in 2010 to join the Cabinet. Javid was appointed a Privy Councillor in 2014.

When asked by the BBC if he would back continued membership of the EU, Javid said; “No one can answer this question before we know the outcome of the renegotiation process. Once the process is over, everyone, and especially the British people, can make their decision.”

Follow Sajid Javid on Twitter @SajidJavid