Nadhim Zahawi, a former chancellor under Boris Johnson, has become the latest Conservative MP to announce he will not be standing again at the general election.
First elected in 2010, Zahawi said on Thursday he “had come to feel that the time is right for a new, energetic Conservative to represent Stratford-on-Avon”.
— Nadhim Zahawi (@nadhimzahawi) May 9, 2024
Zahawi, who was sacked last year by Rishi Sunak as Conservative party chair after he was found to have breached the ministerial code by failing to declare an HMRC investigation into his tax affairs, added: “My mistakes have been mine and my successes have come from working with amazing people.”
His announcement brings the number of Conservative MPs who will be standing down at the next general election to 64.
Zahawi declined to comment on Sunak’s stewardship of government but he said “the prime minister and the Conservative party will continue to have my unswerving support into and beyond the next general election”.
Formerly a high-flyer who had, at one point, been regarded as a serious contender to become Tory leader, Zahawi mounted a leadership campaign in 2022. But he was knocked out of that contest at an early stage, a week after Johnson made him chancellor in an attempt to shore up a dying administration.
Zahawi had faced extensive questions in parliament and the media after it emerged earlier in January last year he had agreed to pay an estimated £5m in a settlement to HMRC. The Guardian then reported that the minister had paid a penalty as part of the settlement.
An investigation by the prime minister’s ethics adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, concluded that Zahawi had made a “serious breach” of the code by not telling officials he was under investigation by the tax body when he was appointed chancellor.
He had also failed to officially declare that he paid a settlement to HMRC for tax avoidance when he was given cabinet positions by Liz Truss in September 2022 and when Sunak then made him Tory chair and minister without portfolio.
Born in Iraq, Zahawi came to England in 1978 when his family fled Saddam Hussein’s regime. He cut his political teeth working for the Conservative MP Jeffrey Archer, and in 2000 co-founded the polling company YouGov, which later floated on the stock exchange.
He joined government as an education minister under Theresa May in July 2018, but it was under her successor, Johnson, that Zahawi’s rise accelerated. He oversaw the rollout of Covid vaccines as a health minister between 2020 and 2021 before being appointed education secretary in September 2021.
Zahawi referred to his origins in his statement: “Every morning as I shave my head in the mirror, I have to pinch myself. How is it that a boy from Baghdad who came to these shores, fleeing persecution and unable to speak a word of English, was able to do as much as I have?”
Paying tribute to his wife, Lana, for her support, Zahawi said he was proud that his constituents could confide in him, adding: “Whether they are struggling against the dead hand of bureaucracy or are stricken by tragedy, being able to help them in their time of need remains one of the most meaningful things I have ever done”.
