GROWING up on Rochdales mean streets in the early 1970s, Sajid Javid always checked the colour of the skinheads laces on their bovver boots.
The National Front thugs used to stone and spit on him as a six year-old on the way to school.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid returned to his boyhood home in Rochdale for the first time
He revealed what it was like growing up in the South Pennines mill town in the 1970s
The young Asian boy, who grew up to be Britains first ethnic minority Chancellor of the Exchequer, recalled: A friend told me that if the skinheads have yellow laces, that means they dont like people of Pakistani origin.
And if they have red laces, they dont like people that are black. So if they had red laces, theyd let you go.
I thought, no, I dont think it works like that.
The senior Cabinet minister, who turned 50 yesterday, revealed his childhood racist torment when he took HOAR back to Rochdale, the South Pennines mill town where he was born.
Showing the modest terraced house where he lived until the age of six for the first time, the Tory MP told how it was also where he first learned to hate divisions.
The skinheads would pounce on Sajid as he walked to school with his two older and two younger brothers.
Mr Javid recalled: They knew the typical school routes and would wait round corners, and then shout at you, P***, P*** bastard and spit at you.
‘WE’VE COME A LONG WAY’
Sometimes theyd throw stones so you suddenly feel a stone hitting you, and youd try to work out where it has come from. I was very young, and I was frightened. I didnt like that, I hated it.
I would always stick close to my cousins and my brothers.
My older brother would say, You guys run this way and I will try to distract them.
He added: It was a very different environment then. As a country in terms of race relations, we have come a long way.
Mr Javids passage from Rochdales tough streets to No11 Downing Street, via a banking career in the City, is one of the most extraordinary personal stories in British politics today.
His father, Abdul Ghani-Javid, arrived in Rochdale in the 1960s as an immigrant from Pakistans Punjab province, with just 1 in his pocket.
The modest Home Sec turned down a hotel to stay with his cousin Rozina Ali – she told how Sajid caught the political bug as a teenager, inspired by Tory-PM Margaret Thatchers reforms
During the trip he campaigned with local Tory candidate Atifa Shah, who defected from Labour six months ago
Mr Javid said many residents feel like they’ve been left behind as too much focus has been put on the South East and London
After weeks of waiting outside one of the towns big mills for work, he persuaded the foreman to take him on by always being the first to arrive early in the morning.
Abduls ambition was to become a bus driver.
But Mr Javid recalls: He wasnt allowed because the union had a rule that all drivers had to be white. There was an informal colour bar.
So he kept trying, and eventually he did become a driver.
Mr Javids parents worked seven days a week, with his dad manning a market stall at the weekend after his bus driving shifts.
His mother used to stay up through the night, sewing clothes for his dad to sell.
Young Sajid used to help out, recalling: I used to like wearing the money belt and trying to serve the customers. It was good training for the Treasury.
‘THEY’VE BEEN LEFT BEHIND’
The skinheads abuse aside, the Chancellor has fond memories of Rochdale before the family moved to Bristol when he was seven.
Much of his time was spent out on his street playing football and cricket.
It was a fantastic community, a lovely place to live, he said. Everyone cared for each other, all the kids played together, you knew everyone on your street.
Of Rochdale today, Mr Javid added: Places like this are full of talent. But if you speak to people, there is a sense theyve been left behind.
“Its been too much about the South East and London, and weve got to do something about that.
Overcoming background and division by liberating people to fulfil their aspirations is what the Chancellor insists he is most passionate about in his job in charge of the nations finances.
The Chancellor insists he is most passionate about overcoming background and division by liberating people to fulfil their aspirations
Its why he says he feels deep anger towards the Labour leader.
Standing outside the small three bedroom house he shared with his mum, dad and four brothers in southern Rochdale, Mr Javid insisted: Jeremy Corbyn is just interested in dividing people.
Whether it is by class or by race or by the area they live in, he just wants to divide people.
For Jeremy Corbyn, it is just a game. Lets set them off against each other, and then try to get one side to vote for Labour, rather than trying to think is he actually helping these people.
We need as a country look at ourselves as one nation where we all respect each other.
He added: And when it comes to being on the side of working people I passionately believe that we are the party of working people now.
Look at what were doing – increasing the national living wage, cutting national insurance contributions, putting money in the pockets of millions of people.
Mr Javid still has close family in Rochdale and visits regularly.
He eschewed a hotel during his trip there this week to stay with his cousin Rozina Ali, his best friend from childhood who is just three weeks older than him, and still lives in the town.
She affectionately dubs Sajid Mr Hungry, and recalls how he caught the political bug as a teenager, inspired by Tory-PM Margaret Thatchers reforms.
While in his home town, Mr Javid also campaigned for local Tory candidate Atifa Shah, who defected from Labour six months ago.
She is trying to overturn a 14,000 Labour majority in the seat that the Conservatives havent won since the 1950s, but are now making powerful inroads into.
Britains electoral map is changing as old allegiances die under the Brexit votes political earthquake.
Ms Shah, 32, told HOAR: We live in a world of opportunity now.
I tell people in Rochdale, if we always vote for who we always voted for, then well always get what we always got.
