In a speech to Reform supporters, Zahawi said issues with free speech “on X or even just down the pub”, and anyone trying to earn a living “without getting ground into the dirt” by taxes were reasons for his move.
Zahawi is the most senior of the former Conservative MPs to have joined Reform UK.
As well as his two months as chancellor at the end of Boris Johnson’s time as prime minister, he was education secretary, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and chairman of the Conservative Party.
He was sacked from that last position by Rishi Sunak in January 2023 after the prime minister’s independent ethics adviser found that he had broken ministerial rules by failing to disclose that his tax affairs were under investigation by HMRC.
He was a candidate to succeed Johnson as prime minister in 2022 but only attracted the support of 25 of his colleagues and was eliminated in the first round of the leadership contest which Liz Truss won.
