Great Britain British former finance minister defects to right-wing populists
Former British Finance Minister and Tory politician Nadhim Zahawi has defected to the right-wing populist party Reform UK.
12.01.2026, 13:59
SDA
The 58-year-old made the announcement at a press conference in London. He is currently the most prominent Conservative to join the competition from the right. Brexit campaigner Nigel Farage's Reform Party has been ahead of the Conservatives and the governing Labour Party in the polls for months.
Zahawi was briefly Finance Minister under then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, but turned against his party leader and thus played a decisive role in his resignation in the summer of 2022. He held various cabinet roles in the governments of Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, most recently as General Secretary of the Conservative Party and Minister without Portfolio.
However, he was dismissed at the beginning of 2023 due to a tax scandal. According to media reports, Zahawi had transferred a seven-figure sum to the tax office to settle a dispute about his tax affairs. Zahawi also admitted this, but without naming a specific sum. He was accused of using an offshore company in Gibraltar as part of his role as a shareholder in the opinion research company YouGov, which he co-founded.
