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Sajid Javid replaced by Rishi Sunak after resigning as Chancellor following 'row over advisers' with Boris Johnson - EVENING STANDARD
BY JOE MURPHY, Jacob Jarvis
Sajid Javid has resigned from his position as Chancellor following an apparent row with Boris Johnson over advisers.
He was seen going into Number 10 earlier today during a Cabinet reshuffle by the prime minister and his spokesman confirmed shortly before midday that he had quit his position.
“The Prime Minister said he had to fire all his special advisers and replace them with Number 10 special advisers to make it one team," a source close to Mr Javid said.
“The Chancellor said no self-respecting minister would accept those terms.”
Mr Javid was called in to No 10 and offered his job, but on condition he sack his team and agree to am economic team shared between No 10 and the Treasury.
Mr Johnson told him he could not tolerate out-of-contol brioefings by the Chancellor’s poilitical advisers, such as on HS2 and a Mansion Tax and cutting tax breaks on pensions.
There have been tensions between Mr Javid and Mr Johnson's chief adviser Dominic Cummings.
During his tenure, Mr Javid was branded a Chino — Chancellor in Name Only — by Mr Cummings who last summer had a top Treasury aide fired and frogmarched out of the building without Mr Javid’s consent.
Tory rising star Rishi Sunak, who has been chief secretary to the Treasury, has been confirmed as Mr Javid's replacement.
He was widely expected to receive a boosted role in today's reshuffle, having been a prominent figure for the party in recent times, having filled in for Mr Johnson at points in the election campaign and regularly making media appearances.
Related: How did Rishi Sunak go from backbencher to chancellor in just five years?
The PM is also set to announce the creation of a delivery unit based at No 10 that will dominate Whitehall policy-making and overshadow the Treasury.
Mr Javid’s departure comes just four weeks before his Budget.
Some MPs thought Mr Johnson had effectively forced out a potential rival power in Whitehall by laying down conditions that he knew Mr Javid could not agree.
Walkouts by Chancellors are rare - and usually massively damaging.
The resignation of Nigel Lawson in 1989 in a dispute over one of Margaret Thatcher’s advisers, Sir Alan Walters, was the precursor to Margaret Thatcher’s ousting.
The Pound dipped briefly on Mr Javid’s shock resignation before recovering.
Mr Javid's resignation came following a raft of high profile sackings by the PM, with five ministers all ousted from the Cabinet today.