Former Conservative chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has defected to Reform UK, the party has announced.
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”.
Mr Zahawi announced his defection at a press conference in central London on Monday, where he appeared alongside the Reform UK leader.
Mr Farage insisted the former Boris Johnson ally’s move to his party helped to dispel suggestions Reform UK was a “one-man band”.
Mr Zahawi stepped down from his Stratford-on-Avon seat ahead of the general election in 2024.
Who is Nadhim Zahawi?
Mr Zahawi is a multimillionaire former businessman who had a meteoric rise to political power.
Born in Iraq to a Kurdish family, Mr Zahawi arrived in England aged nine, unable to speak English, when his parents fled the regime of Saddam Hussein.
He grew up in Sussex and studied chemical engineering at University College London.
In 2000, Mr Zahawi co-founded the YouGov polling company, staying involved in its running for a decade and amassing significant wealth.
His financial affairs came under the spotlight in 2023 amid claims he avoided tax using an offshore company registered in Gibraltar to hold shares in YouGov.
It followed an investigation into his financial affairs that was first revealed by The Independent in 2022.
He first denied the allegations before admitting, more than a year later, that he paid nearly £5m to HMRC to settle his tax affairs.
The former chancellor told the BBC he had paid the sum after making what he called a “careless mistake” with the tax he paid on the sales of shares in YouGov.
Rishi Sunak sacked him as Tory chair in January 2023 after he was found to have breached the ministerial code by failing to declare the HMRC investigation.
Parliamentary and government career
Mr Zahawi is believed to have been one of the richest politicians in the House of Commons.
He first entered parliament in 2010 as the Tory MP for Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire.
He spent nearly eight years on the backbenches, gaining media attention in 2013 for claiming expenses for heating stables for his horses.
Getting his first junior minister role in the Department for Education under Theresa May in 2018, he rose up the ranks to become education secretary.
But it was when he was promoted to help lead the government’s Covid-19 vaccine rollout in 2020 that he rose to prominence.
Mr Zahawi was appointed chancellor by Boris Johnson, hours after Mr Sunak’s resignation from the role, and the day before the scandal-plagued prime minister was forced to quit.
He made a doomed attempt to replace Mr Johnson in the Tory leadership race.
When Liz Truss emerged victorious, she appointed Mr Zahawi as chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster.
After her premiership imploded, Mr Zahawi initially announced he would be backing Mr Johnson to return as PM, before switching allegiance to Mr Sunak on the same day, after the former leader said he would not be entering the contest.
He stepped down from his Stratford-on-Avon seat in May, saying he wanted “a new, energetic Conservative” to take over.
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