Britain is ‘sick’ economically and socially and under threat from ‘radical Islamists’, former Tory chancellor Nadhim Zahawi said today as he joined Reform UK.
The Iraq-born politician and businessman was all smiles as he posed alongside Nigel Farage, despite having once branded his vision for Britain as ‘frightening’.
Mr Zahawi, 58, who held cabinet jobs under four PMs, came out of political retirement today to become the most high-profile Conservative to defect to Reform since Kemi Badenoch became leader.
The 58-year-old was Boris Johnson’s vaccines minister during the Covid pandemic and was chancellor briefly in 2022.
But the millionaire was later forced to quit as Conservative Party chairman over his tax affairs before he stepped down as Stratford-on-Avon MP at the last election.
He said Britain is ‘drinking at the last chance saloon’ and ‘really does need Nigel Farage as prime minister’ in a video message announcing his defection, before he addressed reporters.
He lashed out at the state of the country under Labour and after 14 years of the Tories, saying: ‘Nothing works, there is no growth, there is crime on our streets and there is an avalanche of illegal migration that anywhere else in the world would be a national emergency.’
He also warned that there are ‘radical Islamists waiting in the wings to supplant half the Cabinet at the next general election and enter Parliament’.
However a Tory source said his defection came after he begged ‘several times’ for a seat in the House of Lords without success.
‘Given he was sacked for his dodgy tax affairs, this was never going to happen,’ the source said.
‘His defection tells you everything you need to know about Reform being a repository for disgraced politicians.’
The Iraq-born politician and businessman was all smiles as he posed alongside Nigel Farage, despite having once branded his vision for Britain as ‘frightening’.
Mr Zahawi once wrote that there was ‘no chance’ he would join Nigel Farage, writing in 2014 that he had ‘been a Conservative all my life and will die a Conservative’.
He is the latest and most high-ranking Tory to see more in Nigel Farage than in Kemi Badenoch
Mr Zahawi was sacked as Conservative Party chairman in 2023 after he was found to have breached the ministerial code over his tax affairs.
He later confirmed he paid a nearly £5 million penalty to HMRC in order to settle the matter.
Asked about the incident, Mr Farage gave his backing to the newest Reform UK member.
He said: ‘There’s nobody with a complex business empire that does not have to have negotiations at some point with HMRC.
‘That is how the world works, and I’d much rather have Nadhim who has been through that experience and come out the other end.
‘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.’
It came after he once wrote that there was ‘no chance’ he would join forces with Nigel Farage, writing in 2014 that he had ‘been a Conservative all my life and will die a Conservative’.
The following year he said that Farage’s policies would discriminate against people like him, who were British citizens but not born here.
After Mr Zahawi became chancellor Mr Farage repaid the compliment, saying: ‘I thought Zahawi had principles, but tonight we learned all he’s interested in is climbing that greasy pole.’
But he follows Tory MPs including Nadine Dorries, Danny Kruger and Andrea Jenkyn in joining Reform.
Mr Zahawi arrived in Britain in the 1970s as a Kurdish refugee fleeing Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime in Iraq.
He has previously described how, aged 11, he sat at the back of a classroom in the UK ‘unable to speak a word of English’.
But he went on to make a fortune founding polling firm YouGov from an office in his garden shed, as well as building a £100million property portfolio.
His political career saw him first enter Parliament as a Tory MP in 2010 before becoming Chancellor little more than 12 years later.
But he was sacked by Rishi Sunak as a result of a fierce row over unpaid tax.
In 2015 he attacked Mr Farage’s policies as the leader of Ukip, saying that ‘in Farage’s Britain people like me could be lawfully discriminated against’ because they were British but born abroad.
Today he insisted that those misgivings are behind him as he backed Mr Farage to be PM.
What does Zahawi’s defection say about the state of British politics and its future?
Mr Zahawi was vaccines minister under Boris Johnson during the Covid pandemic
‘We can all see that our beautiful, ancient, kind, magical island story has reached a dark and dangerous chapter,’ he said.
‘Things might feel like they are ticking along just fine within a few square miles of where we stand today. But in so much of the rest of the country, the sickness is no surprise to anyone.
‘To anyone trying to get a doctor’s appointment, to anyone who wants to express an opinion, whether on X or even just down the pub, to anyone who wants their children to be taught facts, not harmful fictions at school, to anyone just trying to earn a living and not be crushed into the dirt by ever-growing taxes.
‘Even if you don’t yet realise that Britain needs Reform, you know in your heart of hearts that our wonderful country is sick.’
He was asked as a former vaccines minister about Reform’s conference last year hosting a vaccine denier who linked the medication to King Charles’ cancer, but branded it a ‘really stupid question’ and declined to answer.
Mr Farage insisted the ex-Tory big beast’s move to his party helped to dispel suggestions Reform UK was a ‘one-man band’.
But the Tories said Mr Zahawi is the latest of a number of ‘has-been politicians looking for their next gravy train’.
A Conservative spokesman said: ‘Reform is fast becoming the party 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.
‘Reform want higher welfare spending and higher taxes. They are a one-man band with no plan for our country.
‘Under Kemi Badenoch the Conservatives are demonstrating we have the plan, the competence and the team to get Britain working again.’
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.
‘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.
‘This shameless scurry of yet another failed Tory over to Reform will tell people everything they need to know about both of them.’