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The former Conservative chancellor Nadhim Zahawi<\/a> has defected to Reform UK, claiming Britain is on the brink of \u201ccivil unrest\u201d and only a government led by Nigel Farage could prevent it.<\/p>\n Zahawi, who stood down as the MP for Stratford-on-Avon at the last election, is the most senior former Conservative to join Farage\u2019s party and his new leader said his government experience would address one of Reform\u2019s weaknesses.<\/p>\n However, both men faced awkward questions at a press conference where Zahawai was asked about his previous claim that Farage had made \u201coffensive and racist\u201d comments about him.<\/p>\n Zahawi was sacked in 2023<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n Citing his concerns about what he saw as threats to freedom of speech, the imposition of high taxes and the \u201cbig state\u201d, Zahawi said he had let his membership of the Conservative party lapse at Christmas before deciding to join Reform. The party\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n There had been no promises of jobs and Zahawi insisted he would be joining as a Reform \u201cfootsoldier\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cMy 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,\u201d said Zahawi.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can all see that our beautiful, ancient, kind, magical island story has reached a dark and dangerous chapter,\u201d Zahawi.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cracist bone in his body\u201d.<\/p>\n Thirty-four school contemporaries of Farage have now come forward <\/a>to claim they saw him behave in a racist or antisemitic manner, raising fresh questions over the Reform leader\u2019s evolving denials.<\/p>\n A now-deleted tweet on Twitter from 2015 was also brought up, in which Zahawi had commented: \u201cI\u2019m 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Zahawi replied: \u201cIf 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\u2019t be sitting next to him.\u201d<\/p>\n 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 \u201cno\u201d though later claimed that he had been \u201cwilfully misrepresented\u201d.<\/p>\n Zahawi also wrote a piece for Conservative Home at the time, under the headline: \u201cIn Farage\u2019s Britain, it would be legal to discriminate against me on the grounds of race.\u201d<\/p>\n