Former Tory chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has defected to Reform UK in what represents the biggest coup for Nigel Farage yet.
The move will be a huge blow to Tory leader Kemi Badenoch who had been hoping that she was turning around her party’s fortunes.
Mr Zahawi, who resigned as Tory chairman in 2023 under a cloud because of questions over his tax affair, was unveiled by Mr Farage at a press conference in central London.
A leading Brexiteer, he has become the latest of a long line of former allies of Boris Johnson to defect to Reform following former culture secretary Nadine Dorries, former chairman Sir Jake Berry, former education minister Dame Andrea Jenkyns and former Brexit minister David Jones.
But Ms Badenoch’s office hit back almost immediately branding Mr Zahawi as “another has-been politician 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.”
Britain is “drinking at the last chance saloon” and “really does need Nigel Farage as prime minister”, Mr Zahawi said in a video message announcing his defection to Reform UK.
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 said that his past tax issues where he settled with HMRC for failing to pay all the tax which was due “should not preclude me from doing the right thing” and rejoin the political fray.
Mr Farage noted that Mr Zahawi “could have gone abroad and not paid any tax.”
The former chancellor was a leading contender to take over after Boris Johnson quit as leader in 2022 but his campaign fell apart in a race which was eventually won by Liz Truss.
The Iraqi born 58-year-old once attacked Mr Farage over his anti-foreigner rhetoric but he insisted that the tweet was 11 years ago, he added: “If I thought this man in any way had an issue with people of my colour and background I wouldn’t be sitting next to him.”
He went on: “I wouldn’t be sitting here if I didn’t think Nigel Farage couldn’t be prime minister.”
Mr Zahawi said that he had been impressed by the Reform UK observing him with international leaders “pushing back when it is necessary, none of the sycophancy we have seen with the current prime minister.”
He also led the Conservative government’s vaccine programme in the early days of the pandemic, something which Mr Farage was highly critical of at the time.
The two rejected answering questions about Reform giving a platform at their conference last September to Dr Aseem Malhotra who used the speech to promote the conspiracy theory that Covid-19 vaccines were a “significant factor” in the cancer diagnosed in King Charles III. Previously Reform chairman Dr David Bull had said Malhotra had helped him write Reform’s health policy.
But Mr Farage insisted that he believed in “free speech” and the views were not party policy while a prickly Mr Zahawi described the question on the issue by one journalist as “stupid”.
Mr Farage insisted the ex-Tory big beast’s move to his party helped to dispel suggestions Reform UK was a “one-man band”.
In 2023 Mr Farage posted a video on Zahawi’s resignation saying: “It has been obvious for a week that Zahawi would have to go. Sunak is a follower not a leader.”
But the Reform UK leader insisted at the press conference: “I have always been a fan of [Mr Zahawi].”
He said that his time as vaccines minister “proves this bloke gets things done.”