Nadhim Zahawi

Nadhim Zahawi is a Reform UK politician and former Conservative MP for Stratford-on-Avon (2010–2024), who served in several cabinet roles including Education Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer. While an MP, he earned £1.3 million as chief strategy officer of Gulf Keystone Petroleum, a Kurdistan-based oil company, and advised fossil fuel companies in Nigeria and Canada through a consultancy he set up with his wife, including Afren, two of whose executives were later jailed following a Serious Fraud Office investigation. His stint as Chancellor lasted under two days before he called on Boris Johnson to resign. In 2023, Sunak's ethics adviser concluded that Zahawi had failed to meet ministerial standards by not declaring an HMRC investigation into his tax affairs, and he was sacked as Conservative Party Chairman. In May 2024, he told the BBC he had paid nearly £5 million to HMRC to settle the matter. In January 2026, Zahawi joined Reform UK — despite having previously said on LBC in 2015 that Farage's remarks were "deeply racist" and that "Goebbels would be proud" of them, and writing on X that he "would be frightened to live in a country run by" Farage. Conservative sources told ITV News that Zahawi had repeatedly requested a peerage and been denied before his defection. Zahawi is known to spend significant time in Dubai, where he owns residential property, and attended GB News' fifth anniversary party held there in January 2026.