Nadhim Zahawi: Ex-Tory chancellor defects to Reform UK saying Britain 'really does need Nigel Farage as prime minister'
Former Conservative chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has joined 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”. The former Conservative chancellor added: “I’ve made my mind that the team that will deliver for this nation will be the team that Nigel will put together, and that’s why I’ve decided that I’m joining Reform UK.”
Mr Zahawi announced his defection at a press conference in central London on Monday, where he appeared alongside Reform UK leader Mr Farage. Mr Farage insisted the ex-Tory big beast’s move to his party helped to dispel suggestions Reform UK was a “one-man band”.
Nadhim Zahawi said the Conservatives “should have been much more forthright about what we really think.” He told a press conference: “I’m going to be open about my real unvarnished fears for the country. Because what has happened in the last 18 months has terrified me. We have a Prime Minister whose first instinct is to trust foreign judges over British people.
“We have an Attorney General who says he would never block the ECHR even presumably when it forces us to take Shamima Begum, and prevent us from deporting foreign child rapists. We have a Chancellor who does not understand economic growth and a parliamentary Labour party who through their lack of engagement with the real world or even seemingly living in it actively despise the capitalist activity that to many millions of us is human, moral, creative and dynamic.”
Mr Zahawi added that Ed Miliband, the Energy Secretary, “couldn’t be doing more damage” to the economy “if he was actively trying to hurt us”. Nadhim Zahawi was seen praising Nigel Farage in a short video shown before his speech.
He said: “I’ve made my mind up that the team that will deliver for this nation will be the team that Nigel will put together. And that’s why I’ve decided that I’m joining Reform.”