- Saturday, March 29, 2025
Zahawi is the 64th Tory MP to step down for the next election.
By: indiaweekly.biz Staff
FORMER UK chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has announced that he will step down at the next general election. “My mistakes have been mine,” he said in a lengthy statement on X.
The Iraqi-born is the 64th Tory MP to take such a decision, which indicates the breadth of losses the party is facing at the moment.
Zahawi, who served as the chancellor for two months in 2022, was facing a challenging re-election, with polls indicating that he was likely to lose the seat where Conservatives have been winning for the last seven decades, Independent reported.
Imbibing the poetical self of William Shakespeare who was born in Stratford-on-Avon, which Zahawi has represented since 2010, he wrote in the letter on X: “As my most famous constituent once wrote: ‘Go to your bosom; knock there and ask your heart what it doth know’.”
— Nadhim Zahawi (@nadhimzahawi) May 9, 2024
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In his lengthy letter posted on X, Zahawi wrote that it was an honour to have served as the MP for Stratford-on-Avon for 14 years and that he feels that it is time for “a new, energetic Conservative to fight for the honour of representing Stratford-on-Avon and assuming the mantle of MP for Shakespeare.”
The 56-year-old Conservative leader also wrote, “I have come to feel that the time is right for a new, energetic Conservative to fight for the honour of representing Stratford-on-Avon and assuming the mantle of MP for Shakespeare.”
Born in a Kurdish family in Baghdad who had fled the country with his parents to the UK when Saddam Hussain was on the rise, Zahawi served as the education secretary between September 2021 and July 2022 when he became the exchequer, succeeding Rishi Sunak, the current premier.
Earlier, in November 2020, he was made the vaccines minister and was responsible for the rolling out of the COVID-19 vaccine programme for almost a year.
“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?” he said in his post on X.
According to Zahawi, helping his constituents when they needed it “remains one of the most meaningful things” has has ever done and said the Tories would have his unswerving support into and beyond the next polls.
The politician made his fortune when he co-founded the online polling company YouGov in 2000 and is believed to be one of the wealthiest politicians in the House of Commons.
Zahawi’s political career started when he was first elected as a councillor from Wandsworth in 1994 and was re-elected three times. He contested the Erith and Thamesmead constituency in 1997 but could not succeed before eventually becoming the MP for Stratford-on-Avon.
During one of his low points of career, Zahawi was dismissed from his role as Tory chair following an ethics inquiry that uncovered a “serious breach” of the ministerial code regarding his tax affairs. The action followed an investigation into his financial dealings, initially brought to light by The Independent in 2022.
