The high-profile new Tory Chancellor is a multimillionaire former oil executive and business baron who attended the controversial President's Club dinner and claimed expenses for his stables. But there's more to his record than just that.
He’s a multimillionaire right-wing Tory who came to Britain as a nine-year-old from Iraq and is now the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Boris Johnson loyalist Nadhim Zahawi took the job last night after Rishi Sunak ’s shock resignation, rocketing him from the post of Education Secretary.
And the 55-year-old could rise even higher, repeatedly refusing to rule out a tilt at Prime Minister if - as most Tories expect - Mr Johnson is finally forced out.
So who is Mr Zahawi, the Tory MP for Stratford-on-Avon since 2010, and what is his fascinating - and controversial - life story?
His Kurdish parents fled Baghdad in the 1970s during the rise of Saddam Hussein.
He was educated at a West London comprehensive, then a private school before attending UCL and building up a lucrative business career.
The Tory co-founded the leading pollster YouGov before being elected to Parliament in 2010.
Recently that role came under scrutiny after he “shared a joke” with YouGov’s CEO in 2017 about an unpublished poll showing a Labour lead.
He was elected a Tory MP in 2010 for safe seat Stratford - but spent nearly eight years on the back benches, where he comfortably made a mint in the oil industry.
He was paid £350,000 a year by Gulf Keystone Petroleum between 2015 and 2017, where he served as the firm’s Chief Strategy Officer alongside his first job as an MP.
He was finally forced to leave the lucrative work behind when he became a junior education minister in 2018.
And becoming Chancellor could be even more of a stretch, as he relocates to a two-bed flat above 10 Downing Street.
But he certainly wasn’t out of pocket.
His payoffs leaving Gulfstone included a £285,000 “settlement payment” in 2018 and and £105,000 he received in lieu of notice.
What’s more, although he stood down from his family business Zahawi and Zahawi Ltd when he became a minister, his wife and two sons are all directors.
The firm has a property empire in Surrey, London, East Sussex and Buckinghamshire, plus 31 acres of land and a stables in Warwickshire.
Last September, as the food prices crisis loomed, the firm bought a £6.3million plot which includes a giant Co-op and car park in St Neot’s, Cambridgeshire.
The horse riding stables are the site of perhaps the most infamous Zahawi story.
In 2013 the Sunday Mirror revealed the millionaire claimed for electricity at the stables, as part of a wider bill, other parts of which were allowed under the rules.
Mr Zahawi at first defended his claims but now admits he made a “mistake”. He told us: “On investigation I have made a mistake with the electricity.
“I will be paying back any money wrongly claimed immediately and I apologise unreservedly.”
He also made controversial remarks in 2020 that some parents “prefer” having to pay for school meals - despite Covid economic woes at the time.
Footballer Marcus Rashford was ramping up pressure at the time on ministers to feed hungry kids in the holidays.
But former oil executive Mr Zahawi said he had worked on holiday club pilots for free meals with former MP Frank Field.
"The research when we did the pilot demonstrates that families didn't just want the meals," he said.
"Although they valued the meals, they didn't like the labelling of them being free. They actually prefer to pay a modest amount, £1 or £2.”
Mr Zahawi also faced questions weeks after becoming a minister - after he attended a men-only charity gala at which female hostesses were allegedly groped.
He was at the Presidents Club gala dinner, where the Financial Times revealed 130 “tall, thin and pretty” women served 300 men at “the most un-PC event of the year”.
The PM faced calls to axe the then-Children’s Minister, who went to the “sleazy” charity event twice.
A No10 source said he would be “disciplined” and asked “to explain himself”.
The minister tweeted about the event: “I condemn this behaviour. I will never attend a men-only function ever”.
Sources said he “felt uncomfortable” and left when the hostesses were introduced.
Despite all this, Mr Zahawi has rocketed up the rankings under Boris Johnson, serving as Vaccines Minister during Covid then Education Secretary.
And Boris Johnson has already boasted to Tory MPs that his new Chancellor could cut taxes now quitting Rishi Sunak is out the way.
In his first interview on the job, Mr Zahawi refused to rule out cancelling a corporation tax hike as Boris Johnson considers a dramatic U-turn.
He also said he would look at another cut to fuel duty, saying: “I will look at everything. There’s nothing off the table. I want to be one of the most competitive countries in the world for investment.”
Before Rishi Sunak quit, there was already speculation he’d axe a corporation tax rise from 19% to 25% next April on profits over £250,000.
Mr Zahawi defended taking the job despite Boris Johnson’s flailing leadership and criticisms from his own party.
He told Sky News: "The important thing is to get inflation under control, be fiscally responsible. The first thing we've got to do is make sure that we are really careful about, whether it's public sector pay, that inflation doesn't continue to be fuelled."
And looking back on his own past, he said: ”I’m going to well up in a minute.
“I pinch myself every morning to think the 11-year-old who arrived on these shores and couldn’t speak a word of English is now the member for Shakespeare at the heart of England and Chancellor of the Exchequer in Her Majesty’s Government.”
Given how far he’s come, it’s not outrageous to suggest he’ll go a little further.
