The former Conservative chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has defected to Reform UK, claiming Britain is on the brink of “civil unrest” and only a government led by Nigel Farage could prevent it.
Zahawi, who stood down as the MP for Stratford-on-Avon at the last election, is the most senior former Conservative to join Farage’s party and his new leader said his government experience would address one of Reform’s weaknesses.
However, both men faced awkward questions at a press conference where Zahawai was asked about his previous claim that Farage had made “offensive and racist” comments about him.
Zahawi was sacked in 2023 as Conservative party chair by Rishi Sunak after he was found to have breached the ministerial code by failing to declare the HMRC investigation into his tax affairs.
Citing his concerns about what he saw as threats to freedom of speech, the imposition of high taxes and the “big state”, Zahawi said he had let his membership of the Conservative party lapse at Christmas before deciding to join Reform. The party’s treasurer and a personal friend, Nick Candy, acted as a bridge and Farage said the party would be looking to the former MP to help bring in new donations.
There had been no promises of jobs and Zahawi insisted he would be joining as a Reform “footsoldier”.
“My analysis is that a huge culprit is the over-mighty bureaucratic inertia that now dominates and runs the country, that has taken control of swathes of the economy and, with barely a shrug of the shoulders, restricts the individual liberty of each and every one of us,” said Zahawi.
“We can all see that our beautiful, ancient, kind, magical island story has reached a dark and dangerous chapter,” Zahawi.
However, he was repeatedly forced to defend Farage over allegations of racism and antisemitism, saying that he would not be sitting beside him if he believed that he had a “racist bone in his body”.
Thirty-four school contemporaries of Farage have now come forward to claim they saw him behave in a racist or antisemitic manner, raising fresh questions over the Reform leader’s evolving denials.
A now-deleted tweet on Twitter from 2015 was also brought up, in which Zahawi had commented: “I’m not British born mr Nigel_Farage. I am as British as u r. Yr comments r offensive & racist. I wld be frightened 2 live in a country run by U.”
Zahawi replied: “If I thought this man sitting next to me in any way had an issue with people of my colour or my background who have come to this country, who have integrated, assimilated, are proud of this country, worked hard in this country, paid millions of pounds in taxes in this country, invested in the country, I wouldn’t be sitting next to him.”
The tweet, which was deleted, appears to have been in response to a broadcast interview in 2015 in which Farage was asked if he was in favour of keeping laws which ban employment discrimination on the grounds of race or colour. Farage answered “no” though later claimed that he had been “wilfully misrepresented”.
Zahawi also wrote a piece for Conservative Home at the time, under the headline: “In Farage’s Britain, it would be legal to discriminate against me on the grounds of race.”
The Reform UK leader said that Zahawi’s arrival would help to bolster the party’s credentials as a serious contender for government, adding: “Our weakness is that we lack frontline experience. People like Nadhim have been on the inside. They know how government works or how government does not work.”
After his defection was announced his former party described Zahawi as the latest of a number of “has-been politicians looking for their next gravy train”.
“Their latest recruit used to say he’d be ‘frightened to live in a country’ run by Nigel Farage, which shows the level of loyalty for sale,” a Tory spokesman added.
“Reform want higher welfare spending and higher taxes. They are a one-man band with no plan for our country.”
Anna Turley MP, the Labour party chair,? said of the defection: “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.
“Zahawi himself has previously repeatedly lambasted his new boss over his divisive and extreme rhetoric – and Farage has said that Zahawi has no principles and is only interested in climbing the greasy pole.”
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