NADHIM ZAHAWI: It breaks my heart to see what’s happened to the country I love under Labour

When my family and I settled in Britain, narrowly escaping the clutches of Saddam Hussein’s brutal secret police almost half a century ago, little did I know how much my fate would change.

Britain has been wonderful to me. I have founded and sold a number of successful businesses and held some of the highest political offices in the largest country in the world.

Even now, there are times in the morning when I have to stand in front of the bathroom mirror and pinch myself. How did a boy from Baghdad, who came to these shores at the age of 11 without knowing a word of English, become the Chancellor of Finance?

So it breaks my heart to see what has happened in the last 18 months in the country that welcomed me so generously all those years ago.

You really don’t have to look very hard to see that Britain is now basically torn apart.

That’s why I decided to join Reform UK to offer my experience and insights to help Nigel Farage and the confident team he has built.

I can very comfortably spend the rest of my life in the business life I have enjoyed since leaving the Parliament in the last election. But frankly I could no longer sit on the sidelines and watch Britain slowly suffocate under Labour’s economically illiterate policies.

It is no exaggeration to say that our economy is on life support. Unemployment is rising, growth remains stagnant. Everywhere you go, businesses are dying.

‘England needs Reformation. ‘Britain needs Nigel Farage as Prime Minister,’ says Mr Zahawi

So what would you expect from a Government that actively disdains capitalism and all the dynamic, creative benefits it brings?

Take a look at the current Cabinet. They don’t have an ounce of business experience or real-world involvement among them. It’s a small miracle that financial incompetence has seeped into every government department.

We have a Chancellor who is out of his depth and has no idea what he is doing. An Energy Minister determined to pursue a Net Zero policy that would bankrupt the country. A Foreign Secretary who not only gave British territory but made us pay for the pleasure of doing so.

Meanwhile, we have a Chief Prosecutor so obsessed with the European Court of Human Rights that he admits he would probably never try to override that decision, even if it were to deport child rapists.

This does not mean that the Conservative government of which I am a part is perfect. Far from it.

When I look back at our time in office, I can say that we were too timid, even too weak, in our approach to tackling the problems facing the country.

I’m embarrassed to admit this, but we’ve too often let the bureaucratic behemoth of the civil service walk around us whenever we’ve tried to create real change.

Many in the various departments I worked in were not exceptional, talented, and talented people. I mean quangos, regulators, managers.

‘Everything is too complex and too big to change,’ they told us. And we believed them.

My personal regret is that when I left business and entered politics, I prided myself on being an outspoken person in life. After all, a businessman is only as good as his word, as the old adage goes.

But on reflection, it didn’t take long after I arrived at Westminster to realize I had fallen into that strange, jargonistic conversation we constantly hear politicians talk about on the air, talking around issues rather than tackling them directly.

Not anymore. From now on, I want to be absolutely frank with the public and honest about my bare fears for our country.

Because believe me when I say that we have reached a dark page in our nation’s history. As disastrous as this party is, far worse forces wait patiently in the wings. I am talking about the threat of radical Islamists who plan to enter the Parliament in the next general elections.

We have already seen how this fifth column likes to incite hatred and division in Jewish communities. Make no mistake, the rest of the country is also in their sights.

I have full faith that there is only one political party and one man who can save us from all this.

Britain needs Reformation. Britain needs Nigel Farage as Prime Minister.