“ARCHITECT of austerity” Sajid Javid’s appointment as Health Secretary following Matt Hancock’s disgraced resignation despite his links to private healthcare interests was slammed by Labour and unions today.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson welcomed the former home secretary and chancellor back to the Cabinet on Saturday evening after Mr Hancock quit for breaching Covid-19 social distancing guidelines.

Images emerged on Friday showing the married West Suffolk MP kissing close friend and aide Gina Coladangelo in his ministerial office amid reports of an affair.

Coventry South Labour MP Zarah Sultana pointed out that Mr Javid — who resigned as chancellor in February 2020 after refusing demands from the PM and his former aide Dominic Cummings to dismiss his advisers — became a paid senior adviser to JP Morgan after leaving office.

The US banking giant has major investments in private healthcare. 

She said on Twitter: “In the past year Javid has been paid £300,000+ by investment banks, management consultants and other big businesses. That’s in addition to his MP salary.

“Now he’s [Health Secretary], he’s going to tell NHS workers they deserve a pay cut. Unbelievable.”

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said appointing the Bromsgrove MP, known to favour more “fiscal conservatism” or austerity, is akin to “putting the fox in charge of the chicken coop.”

More than five million people are on the NHS waiting list, as the health service buckles under the weight of the impact of the pandemic and a decade of austerity. 

He said: “[Mr] Javid was responsible for that. He was a Treasury minister. He was an architect of the austerity that has afflicted the NHS.”

Questioning the appointment, Unite national officer for health Jackie Williams emphasised that to get back on an “even keel,” the NHS needs more money, not less.  

Labour chairwoman Anneliese Dodds slammed the Tories for a “total lack of integrity” after Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis claimed that Mr Hancock deserved credit for resigning. 

“Hancock’s record includes wasting huge sums of taxpayers’ money, leaving care homes exposed and breaking his own Covid-19 rules. If Boris Johnson had any backbone, he would have removed him,” she said. 

Labour suggested that the police should investigate Mr Hancock, after the leaked images were allegedly taken on May 6 before rules concerning physical contact with those outside household bubbles were relaxed on May 17.

The party said it would also push for the former culture secretary to be stripped of the £16,000 severance pay he is entitled to and demand an investigation into any conflict of interest over the appointment of Ms Coladangelo.

Deputy Leader Angela Rayner said: “They say a fish rots from the head down, and the stink of sleaze hanging around this government comes from the very top and the [PM’s] own total disregard for rules.”