Sajid Javid said that supporting Liz Truss in the Conservative leadership contest that ultimately made her prime minister was his “biggest mistake in politics”.

Speaking at the Hay festival in Wales while promoting his memoir, the former chancellor, who is no longer an MP, said there were friends in the Conservative party he remained in contact with.

Asked whether he still speaks to Truss, Javid responded: “No. I said ‘friends’.” Broadcaster Aasmah Mir then asked: “Hang on a minute, did you not back her in the first leadership election?” to which Javid replied: “Biggest mistake in politics.”

After Boris Johnson’s resignation in 2022, Javid initially launched his own campaign for the Conservative leadership before backing Truss after being eliminated from the contest. Truss’s premiership lasted just 49 days in 2022 after her government’s disastrous mini-budget.

Javid, who stood down as an MP at the 2024 election, was also asked by Mir what he thought of the swathe of Tory MPs defecting to Reform, to which he responded simply: “Good riddance.”

He also argued that the quality of Britain’s political class had deteriorated in recent years. He said: “Has the calibre of politicians declined in recent years? Yes. I think dramatically. But it would be unfair … to blame that just on the politicians. The politicians reflect what you vote for.

“Ultimately, the calibre of the politicians is on the people. If you want different politicians, you’ve got to vote differently – not just think about their party label or whatever – but also just about what kind of person they are, what’s really motivating them.”

Javid, who is now a partner at an investment firm, made the case for increasing MPs’ pay, saying: “We don’t pay politicians enough to attract people from the top of their game – and that could be a head teacher, it could be an accountant, it could be a doctor – to leave their jobs and say, you know what, I want to serve my country.

“So to some extent, you get what you pay for … We should half the number of MPs and double their salaries.”

Javid served in a number of cabinet roles under David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris Johnson, including as home secretary and chancellor. He later returned to government as health secretary under Johnson before stepping down in July 2022, amid a wave of resignations that ultimately led to the end of Johnson’s premiership.

After resigning as an MP before the 2024 general election, Javid became a partner at Centricus, a private equity and asset manager based in Mayfair founded by his former colleagues at Deutsche Bank. He also works as chair of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust.

Richard Osman, Kate Mosse and Sir Philip Pullman are among authors calling for all babies to automatically receive a library card at birth. The proposal, put forward by the thinktank Cultural Policy Unit (CPU), aims to make public library membership a national birthright and encourage a culture of reading and learning in the early stages of childhood through a National Library Card.

“The idea behind a National Library Card is very simple,” Alison Cole, director at the CPU, said. “Access to knowledge and culture should be a birthright, not a postcode lottery. By giving every child an automatic library card from birth, together with a programme of activities and engagement, we make libraries part of the fabric of everyday life.”

A November report by the National Literacy Trust found a socioeconomic gap in book ownership. “Far fewer” children and young people who receive free school meals report having a book of their own compared with their peers, making public libraries that offer free access to books crucial for tackling social inequality.

Public libraries are “engines of social mobility with a critical role in supporting children and families from birth”, said Isobel Hunter, chief executive of Libraries Connected. She added that investment is key, and offers long-term benefits to closing opportunity gaps in communities.

“Reading from the earliest days supports bonding, tackles inequalities, and boosts development,” added Annie Crombie, co-CEO of BookTrust.

Author Kate Mosse said that universal access to local libraries “will make an enormous difference to young parents who maybe don’t have a support network near them”.

Cole added that the “support of authors like Richard Osman and Kate Mosse really matters, as does Sir Philip Pullman’s enthusiasm for a policy that is full of optimism. They understand better than anyone that readers are made early, and that libraries are where curiosity, confidence – as well as a love of stories – begins. Their backing reflects a growing consensus that if we’re serious about literacy and social mobility, we have to start from birth – and libraries are a place of infinite possibilities.”

The National Library Card initiative would also help teach children how to confidently navigate an increasingly digital world in an era of artificial intelligence, said the CPU. It has incorporated a library journey timeline in its proposal that includes suggestions of services for stages of child development, from birth to 18 years, to ensure that libraries are “lifelong tools for learning, creativity, cultural experiences and social mobility”.