Reform UK is celebrating its highest profile defector yet from the Conservative Party: Former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi. ITV News Political Correspondent Shehab Khan reports
Former Tory chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has joined Reform UK, the party has announced, despite previously saying he would be “frightened to live in a country run by” Nigel Farage.
The former MP and minister, who also led the Conservative government’s vaccine programme in the early days of the pandemic, said Britain was “drinking at the last chance saloon” and “really does need Nigel Farage as prime minister”.
Reform UK announced Zahawi’s defection – the latest in a line of Tories who have joined Farage – at a press conference in central London on Monday in a surprise video looking back at the ex-chancellor’s political career.
Zahawi told the press briefing: “I am inspired by Reform, our best days can lie ahead… but at the moment Britain is broken.”
However, Tory sources told ITV News that Zahawi was seeking a Conservative peerage and had been denied several times before his defection.
A Tory source said: “Nadhim asked for a peerage several times. Given he was sacked for his dodgy tax affairs, this was never going to happen. His defection tells you everything you need to know about Reform being a repository for disgraced politicians.”
But sources close to Zahawi have denied this and say Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch was interested in “elevating” him this year and that her team approached him for advice.
Zahawi served as chancellor in Boris Johnson’s Cabinet and as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster during Liz Truss’s short premiership, before he was sacked by Rishi Sunak as Conservative Party Chairman in 2023 over his tax affairs.
He was found to have breached the ministerial code after admitting to paying a nearly £5 million settlement to HMRC while he was serving as chancellor to end the dispute.
Farage defended his most high-profile defector to date and claimed: “There’s nobody with a complex business empire that does not have to have negotiations at some point with HMRC…
“He could have just gone abroad. He could have just disappeared for a few years, not paid any tax, which by the way, increasingly is what people are doing.”
Zahawi said he knew his defection “may come as a surprise to my old party and to many Westminster watchers but it really shouldn’t”.
“And it certainly won’t come as a shock to the tens of millions of hard-working, patriotic, decent people up and down our wonderful United Kingdom,” he added.
The comments are a stark contrast to Zahawi’s previous position on Farage’s politics.
During the press briefing, Zahawi was asked about a previous tweet in which he said: “I’m not British born Mr Nigel Farage, I’m as British as you are. Your comments are offensive and racist and I would be frightened to live in a country run by you.”
Zahawi is questioned on an old tweet in which he told Farage: ‘I’d be frightened to live in a country run by you’
“Good on you for digging out a tweet from 11 years ago,” he replied.
“But all I would say to you is if I thought this man sitting next to me… had an issue with people of my colour, or my background, who have come to his country, who have integrated, assimilated, proud of this country, worked hard for this country, paid millions of pounds in taxes in this country, invested in this country – I wouldn’t be sitting next to him.
“And I think he wouldn’t be sitting next to me either.”
In 2015, Zahawi told LBC Radio that previous remarks made by Farage were “deeply racist,” and comments of which “Goebbels would be proud” – referring to Joseph Goebbels, who was propaganda minister in Nazi Germany.
The then-Stratford on Avon MP was reacting to Farage saying he would abolish a ban that stops employers turning away workers on the basis of their race or ethnicity.
“I came here from Iraq, but I absolutely feel British and proud of it. To be told this man could run the country and discriminate against you in eight weeks’ time is frightening. I am disgusted by that,” he had said.
That same year, Zahawi, who was born in Baghdad, wrote a think piece in Conservative Home with the headline: “In Farage’s Britain, it would be legal to discriminate against me on the grounds of race.”
“What’s frightening is that in Farage’s Britain, people like me could be lawfully discriminated against and British businesses would be encouraged to bin our CVs,” he wrote.
On Farage’s part, the feeling previously appeared to be mutual.
In 2022, speaking on Zahawi’s appointment of chancellor, Farage told GB News: “I thought Zahawi had principles, but tonight we learned all he’s interested in is climbing that greasy pole.”
Farage insisted the ex-Tory big beast’s move to his party helped to dispel suggestions Reform UK was a “one-man band”.
Commenting on the defection, the Conservatives said Zahawi is the latest of a number of “has-been politicians looking for their next gravy train”.
Labour Party Chair Anna Turley said: “This confirms what we already knew: Reform UK has no shame. Nadhim Zahawi is a discredited and disgraced politician who will be forever tied to the Tories’ shameful record of failure in government.
“This shameless scurry of yet another failed Tory over to Reform will tell people everything they need to know about both of them.
“While Farage spreads toxic division and decline, this Labour Government is focused on delivering for working people. We’re tackling the cost of living – with free breakfast clubs for kids, rail fares and prescription charges frozen, and mortgage costs easing.”
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