Former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has defected to Reform UK, becoming the most senior ex-Conservative figure to join Nigel Farage’s party.
Zahawi, 58, was unveiled alongside Farage at a press conference in London, where he warned that Britain was “drinking in the last chance saloon” and said the country “really does need Nigel Farage as prime minister”.
In a video message announcing his move, the former vaccines minister and chancellor said: “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. I’ve made my mind up that the team which will deliver for this nation is the team that Nigel will put together.”
The defection marks a dramatic political reversal for Zahawi, who once insisted there was “no chance” he would ever join Farage. Writing in 2014, he said he had “been a Conservative all my life and will die a Conservative”. A year later, he warned that Farage’s policies could discriminate against British citizens born overseas.
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