Nadhim Zahawi defects to Reform UK: Ex-Chancellor says UK ‘drinking in the last chance saloon’ as he becomes highest ranking Tory to join Nigel Farage’s party
Former Conservative Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has defected to Reform today, becoming the best-known former Tory to join Nigel Farage’s Party.
The Iraqi-born politician, who has held numerous cabinet positions under four different prime ministers, was introduced by Mr Farage at a press conference in London today.
The 58-year-old was Boris Johnson’s vaccines minister during the Covid outbreak but later had to leave the government due to tax matters. He resigned as MP for Stratford-on-Avon at the last election.
In a video message announcing his departure, Mr Zahawi said Britain was ‘drinking at the last chance bar’ and ‘really needs Nigel Farage as prime minister’.
The former Conservative Chancellor added: ‘Nothing works, there is no growth, there is crime on our streets and there is an avalanche of illegal immigration that would constitute a national emergency anywhere else in the world.’
He added: ‘I decided that Nigel would be the team that would bring success to this country and that’s why I decided to join Reform UK.’
The former MP, who held numerous cabinet positions under four different prime ministers, was announced by Mr Farage at a press conference in London today.
He is the latest and most senior Tory to see more in Nigel Farage than Kemi Badenoch.
Mr Zahawi once wrote that he had no chance of joining Nigel Farage and in 2014 wrote that he was “currently joining”. ‘All my life I’m a Tory and I’ll die a Tory’.
But he trails Tory MPs such as Nadine Dorries, Danny Kruger and Andrea Jenkyn in joining Reform.
Mr Zahawi came to Britain in the 1970s as a Kurdish refugee fleeing Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime in Iraq.
He has previously described sitting at the back of a classroom in the UK when he was 11 and ‘not speaking a word of English’.
But he has built a £100 million property portfolio as well as making a fortune by starting polling company YouGov from an office in his garden shed.
His political career saw him first enter Parliament as a Tory MP in 2010 and become Chancellor just over 12 years later.
But he was sacked by Rishi Sunak as a result of a bitter row over his tax affairs.
In 2015, he attacked Mr Farage’s policies as leader of Ukip, saying ‘in Farage’s Britain people like me could be legally discriminated against because they are British but were born abroad’.
Mr Farage insisted the former Conservative big beast’s move into his party had helped dispel suggestions that Reform UK was a ‘one-man band’.
But the Conservatives said Mr Zahawi was the latest in a string of former politicians looking for the next gravy train.
A Conservative Party spokesman said: ‘Reform is fast becoming the party of old politicians looking for the next gravy train.
‘Their last recruit said he would be afraid of living in a country run by Nigel Farage’, which shows the level of loyalty to sales.
‘Reform calls for higher welfare spending and higher taxes. They are a one-man band with no plans for our country.
‘The Conservatives under Kemi Badenoch are showing that we have the plan, the capability and the team to get Britain working again.’
