In a stunning political reversal, former Conservative chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has joined Reform UK, despite having previously declared he would be "frightened" to live in a country run by the party's leader, Nigel Farage.
A High-Profile Defection
Mr Zahawi, a controversial figure who was found to have breached the ministerial code over his tax affairs in 2023, became the highest-profile politician to defect to Reform UK on Monday, 12 January 2026. At a press conference, he insisted that Britain "really does need Nigel Farage as prime minister."
However, his dramatic switch was almost immediately overshadowed by the resurfacing of his own past, highly critical statements about Mr Farage. These contradictions, made on social media over several years, paint a starkly different picture of his views on the Reform leader.
Contradictions from the Past
In 2015, Mr Zahawi responded forcefully to Mr Farage's call to scrap much of the UK's workplace racial discrimination legislation. On social media, he wrote: "I'm not British Born Mr @Nigel_Farage I am as British as u r. Yr comments r offensive&racist. I wld b frightened 2live in country run by U."
This was not an isolated remark. In 2014, he labelled Mr Farage as "establishment as they come," pointing to his multiple runs for political office. A year later, in a piece for Conservative Home, Mr Zahawi elaborated on his fears, writing: "What's frightening is that in Farage's Britain people like me could be lawfully discriminated against and British businesses would be encouraged to bin our CVs."
He had also been unequivocal about his political home, stating on X (formerly Twitter) in 2014: "Been a Conservative all my life and will die a Conservative."
Conservative Fury and Press Conference Laughter
The Conservative Party reacted with scorn to the defection. A Tory source described Mr Zahawi as the latest in a line of "has-been politicians looking for their next gravy train of defection," adding that his move "shows the level of loyalty for sale." They also quoted Mr Farage's own past criticism of Zahawi, who in 2022 said the then-chancellor was "just about climbing that greasy pole."
When confronted with his old social media posts during Monday's press conference, Mr Zahawi laughed them off, saying: "Good on you for digging out tweets from 11 years ago." Green MP Ellie Chowns was quick to highlight the hypocrisy, publicly questioning if this was the same man who had called Mr Farage's comments "offensive and racist."
The defection marks a significant coup for Reform UK, securing a former senior cabinet minister. Yet, it also immediately exposes the party and Mr Zahawi himself to accusations of blatant political opportunism, as his deeply held past convictions appear to have been set aside.
