Nadhim Zahawi (; ; born 2 June 1967) is an Iraqi-born British politician who served in various ministerial positions under prime ministers Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, and Rishi Sunak from 2018 to 2023. He most recently served as Chairman of the Conservative Party and Minister without Portfolio from 25 October 2022 until he was dismissed by Sunak on 29 January 2023. A former member of the Conservative Party, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Stratford-on-Avon from 2010 to 2024. As of January 2026, he is a member of Reform UK.
Born in Baghdad to a Kurdish family, Zahawi was co-founder of international Internet-based market research firm YouGov of which he was chief executive until February 2010. A chemical engineer in his earlier career, he was chief strategy officer for Gulf Keystone Petroleum until January 2018. After the retirement of previous Conservative MP John Maples, he was elected for Stratford-on-Avon at the 2010 general election.
Zahawi joined Theresa May's government as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families in the 2018 reshuffle. Following Boris Johnson's appointment as prime minister, he was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Industry, and in 2020 he was given additional responsibility for the COVID-19 vaccination programme as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for COVID-19 Vaccine Deployment. In the 2021 cabinet reshuffle he was promoted to Johnson's cabinet as Secretary of State for Education. On 5 July 2022, he became the Chancellor of the Exchequer after the resignation of Rishi Sunak. Less than 48 hours later, Zahawi withdrew his support for Johnson and publicly called on him to resign, which Johnson did shortly afterwards.
Zahawi was a candidate to succeed Johnson in the Conservative Party leadership election, but was eliminated from the ballot after the first round of voting, and subsequently supported Truss's bid to become Conservative leader. Truss appointed Zahawi as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Minister for Intergovernmental Relations and Minister for Equalities on 6 September 2022 following her appointment as prime minister. He was succeeded as chancellor by Kwasi Kwarteng. After Truss resigned in October 2022, Zahawi endorsed Johnson to return to the premiership. After Johnson withdrew from the race, he supported Sunak's bid to become Conservative leader. Sunak appointed Zahawi as Chairman of the Conservative Party and Minister without Portfolio on 25 October 2022 following his appointment as prime minister. On 29 January 2023, he was dismissed from the roles after Sunak's ethics adviser, Laurie Magnus, advised that he had breached the Ministerial Code by failing to disclose that he was being investigated by HM Revenue and Customs while he served in his previous position as Chancellor of the Exchequer under Johnson.
In January 2026, Zahawi defected from the Conservative Party to Reform UK.
Early life and education Nadhim Zahawi was brought up in a liberal Muslim family from Baghdad. His paternal grandfather was Nadhim al-Zahawi, Governor of the Central Bank of Iraq from 1959 to 1960, and Minister of Trade. His father is Hareth Nadhim Al Zahawi (born 1942), a British-Iraqi businessman who established the Al-Zahawi Group, which after the United States invasion of 2003 obtained a lucrative contract to provide logistics, cleaning and support services to the new US-led interim government. Now known as IPBD ("Iraq Project and Business Development"), its interests have expanded to cover steel manufacturing and property development, and generally "supporting the reconstruction effort". Zahawi's father is also a director of Balshore Investments Ltd, Gibraltar.
When he was nine years old, during Saddam Hussein's rise to power, he and his family fled to the UK. Zahawi was educated at Holland Park School, before moving to Ibstock Place School and then at King's College School, an independent school in Wimbledon, London. He then studied at University College London, where he earned a BSc degree in chemical engineering in 1988.
Business career Business and financial interests In the 1990s, Zahawi was part owner of a Nuneaton-based licensed clothes manufacturer, Allen (Hinckley) Ltd (formerly known as Pagecomp Ltd). The company produced clothing with licensed designs, ranging from Warner Brothers to World Cup '98 to the Teletubbies. Jeffrey Archer invested six-figure sums in the company and would go on to own one-third of the company. By December 1998, the company had collapsed with millions of debt and the loss of around 100 jobs. In 2010, Zahawi stated: "There's a company I have set up and failed in Allen (Hinckley) Ltd. I don't hide my failures".
Following a career as European Marketing Director for Smith & Brooks Ltd, Zahawi co-founded YouGov in 2000 with Stephan Shakespeare. Zahawi was YouGov's CEO from 2005 to 2010.
In 2008, Zahawi became a non-executive director of SThree, a specialist staffing organisation. He was paid £2,917 per month in 2014. He stepped down from the role in October 2017.
In November 2013, it was reported by the Birmingham Mail newspaper that in May 2011 (one year after he became an MP) Zahawi used as a mortgage lender Berkford Investments Limited, based in the low-tax British overseas territory of Gibraltar, to finance the purchase of his constituency home 'Oaklands' riding stables estate (worth at the time £875,000) in Upper Tysoe, near Stratford-upon-Avon, in Warwickshire. Berkford Investments Limited is managed by T&T Management Services Limited, whose services include wealth management. Zahawi responded to the news story by saying: "I did pay stamp duty on my property in Tysoe and have always paid stamp duty on my property purchases. I fully support the 2012 budget and all budgets of this government. I purchased my property in Tysoe with a mortgage from a Gibraltar company. This fact and the details involved are fully declared on the Land Registry and to suggest it is in any way hidden would be factually incorrect. Equally, to suggest that in any way I am using offshore to reduce my tax burden is entirely incorrect."
In 2015, he joined Gulf Keystone Petroleum, an oil and gas exploration and production company, as a part-time chief strategy officer. For his work between 2015 and 2017 for the company, he was paid a total of at least £1.3 million. Zahawi's various roles resulted in him becoming the second highest earning MP in the UK in 2017.
The Guardian reported in early 2017 that Zahawi had spent £25 million buying property around London, for both personal and commercial use. Zahawi said in response that "My first priority, before anything else, is my constituency work and I would never, or have never, let anything get in the way of this."
In May 2024, he became the Non Executive Chairman of The Very Group.
Tax and financial affairs In July 2022, it was reported that despite being one of the two key founders of YouGov, Zahawi was issued no founder shares in the company. Instead, he arranged for the founder shares that would have gone to him to go to a Gibraltar company owned by an offshore trust controlled by his parents. Zahawi denied that this was motivated by tax avoidance. He instructed libel lawyers to seek a withdrawal of allegations by tax lawyer Dan Neidle that one of Zahawi's denials of tax avoidance was based on a lie.Nadhim Zahawi sends 'threatening' letters to online tax critic . The Times. 23 July 2022. Retrieved 23 July 2022. When asked about his taxes during the 2022 Conservative leadership contest, Zahawi said that he was being smeared.
In January 2023, The Guardian was told Zahawi agreed to pay a penalty to HMRC in relation to his tax affairs. In a statement, Zahawi said HMRC accepted that an error in his tax affairs was "careless and not deliberate". He stated: "HMRC agreed with my accountants that I have never set up an offshore structure, including Balshore Investments, and that I am not the beneficiary of Balshore Investments." Jim Harra, chief executive of HMRC, while unable to speak about an individual's confidential tax affairs, told the Public Accounts Committee that "carelessness is a concept in tax law"; if an "error was as a result of carelessness, then legislation says that a penalty could apply in those circumstances", but that HMRC would not penalise taxpayers who it was felt had taken reasonable care: "There are no penalties for innocent errors in your tax affairs."HMRC boss tells MPs 'innocent errors' are not penalised, amid Zahawi tax row The Guardian. 26 January 2023 According to The Guardian Zahawi paid a seven-figure penalty to HMRC over tax irregularities.
Prem Sikka, a Labour member of the House of Lords and an emeritus accounting professor at Essex University and Sheffield University, said of an unsecured loan of about £30m shown by accounts to have been given to Zahawi's wife's UK property company, Zahawi & Zahawi: "There has been no explanation in the accounts of who provided these loans. Given the concern over Mr Zahawi's tax affairs we now need further clarity. The ethics adviser should be looking at these matters too". Dan Neidle, a tax lawyer, said he found the large unsecured loans incredible and he was concerned that the public do not know who gave the loans.Nadhim Zahawi faces questions over source of £30m unsecured loans to wife's property company The Guardian. 26 January 2023
Political career Early political career
In 1991, Zahawi and fellow British-Kurd Broosk Saib were aides to Conservative politician Jeffrey Archer during Archer's "Simple Truth" campaign to help Kurdish victims of the Gulf War. Zahawi and Saib were nicknamed "Lemon kurd" and "Bean kurd" by Archer. In 1994 Archer helped campaign for Zahawi for a seat on Wandsworth council. Zahawi also ran Archer's unsuccessful campaign for Mayor of London in 1998.
Zahawi was elected as a Conservative councillor in Putney in the London Borough of Wandsworth, where he served three terms from 1994 to 2006.
At the 1997 general election, Zahawi stood as the Conservative candidate in Erith and Thamesmead, coming second with 20.2% of the vote behind the Labour candidate John Austin.
Parliamentary career In February 2010, Zahawi was selected by the local Conservative Association in Stratford-on-Avon as their prospective parliamentary candidate for the 2010 general election. At the general election, Zahawi was elected to Parliament as MP for Stratford-on-Avon with 51.5% of the vote and a majority of 11,346.
In October 2013, Zahawi became a member of the Number 10 Policy Unit. Later in October, Zahawi and fellow member of the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee interviewed Lazard, the Government's independent adviser on the sale of Royal Mail. Shares quickly rose to £5 following flotation at £3.30 and the Financial Times claimed that two investment banks had warned that it was underpriced.
In November 2013, Zahawi apologised after it was reported that he had claimed expenses for electricity used to run the stables on his private estate.
In 2015, while still a member of the Business Select Committee, Zahawi directed a "tough line of questioning" at Post Office CEO Paula Vennells over the subpostmasters mediation scheme, describing her handling of it as "a shambles". As a result of his questioning, he later gained a cameo appearance, playing himself in the 2024 ITV drama Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
Zahawi was re-elected as MP for Stratford-on-Avon at the 2015 general election with an increased vote share of 57.7% and an increased majority of 22,876.