The latest defector to Reform UK Nadhim Zahawi previously said he would be “frightened” to live in a country run by Nigel Farage.
The controversial former Tory chancellor became the highest profile politician to defect to Reform UK on Monday, insisting Britain “really does need Nigel Farage as prime minister”.
But within minutes, contradictory statements Mr Zahawi had made on social media about Mr Farage in previous years emerged.
Responding to Mr Farage’s 2015 call to scrap much of the UK’s racial discrimination in the workplace legislation, Mr Zahawi wrote on social media: “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.”
Responding to the news, the Conservatives described Mr Zahawi as the latest of a number of “has-been politicians looking for their next gravy train of defection,” adding his comments “shows the level of loyalty for sale”.
“It looks like Farage was right when he said Nadhim Zahawi is ‘just about climbing that greasy pole,” a Tory source told The Independent.
“Haunted by the spectre of his own irrelevance, Zahawi has jumped on the gravy train. But his sudden, dramatic change of heart won’t be enough to revive his failing political career.”
The post is one of several statements Mr Zahawi has previously made about the Reform UK leader.
Pointing out his record on running for political office multiple times, he labelled Mr Farage as “establishment as they come” in 2014.
He wrote in Conservative Home a year later: “I was born in Baghdad but am deeply proud to call myself British. My parents chose to make Britain their home because this was a place where belonging was about what you put in, rather than where you came from.
“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.”
Asked in 2014 about his political allegiances, he wrote on X (then Twitter): “Been a Conservative all my life and will die a Conservative.”
Mr Farage was meanwhile found to have criticised his new party member when he was appointed chancellor in 2022 for “climbing the greasy pole”.
The two men were asked about their past exchanges on social media during a press conference unveiling Mr Zahawi’s defection on Monday.
The former MP and minister, who also led the Conservative government’s vaccine programme in the early days of the pandemic, laughed off the posts, and said: “Good on you for digging out tweets from 11 years ago”.
Green MP Ellie Chowns also raised Mr Zahawi’s previous concerns about Mr Farage, saying: ““Is this the same Mr Zahawi that said of Nigel Farage, your comments are offensive and racist and I would be frightened to live in a country run by you [1]? Indeed, it would appear it is.”
