Nadhim Zahawi, a gambler, was betting today that the Conservative Party and the general public would forgive Ham for supporting Boris Johnson, becoming Chancellor, and then ending his premiership in less than 24 hours.
The multi-millionaire married father-of-three Tory MP was accused of secretly planning his leadership bid for months with the assistance of the PM’s own election strategist, and he went from being Boris Johnson’s savior to his killer in the span of a single day.
It’s another calculated wager from the Tory MP, whose commercial risk-taking has led to comparisons to Del Boy from Only Fools & Horses and to a contestant on The Apprentice aiming to impress Lord Sugar.
Mr. Zahawi built and gained millions from the polling behemoth YouGov, which Peter Kellner, a former senior colleague, said today: “My old friend, with whom I worked for ten years, has made a big error – you do not bind yourself to a sinking ship.”
The PM, who removed Theresa May, will comprehend “the brutal political necessity for Zahawi to commit regicide,” according to political analyst Joe Murphy, who stated in the Evening Standard that “in the end it took a politician as ruthless and ambitious as Boris himself to deliver the coup de grace.”
The rise of the 55-year-old Tory MP is remarkable considering that he was a Kurdish refugee from Iraq who fled Saddam Hussein with his family at the age of nine and had no English language skills when he came in Britain.
He went on to become wealthy by starting the polling company YouGov and amassing a collection of £100 million properties.
After Rishi Sunak resigned, Mr. Zahawi received a spectacular promotion from Education Secretary to Chancellor late on Tuesday night. In order to strengthen the position of the Tory leader, he also openly defended the Prime Minister after being given control of the Treasury.
But only a few hours later, Mr. Zahawi was working at No. 10 with other erstwhile allies to attempt to get Mr. Johnson to go. This morning, he pulled the plug, publicly urging the PM to “do the right thing and go now.” A few minutes later, it became clear that the Prime Minister had finally decided to step down due to the lack of support from the Chancellor.
Last night, it was asserted that he had been quietly organizing a Tory leadership campaign with Sir Lynton Crosby’s close associates, the Australian strategist who is credited with helping Boris win numerous elections.
According to reports, the chancellor has been working on plans for months, including suggestions to lower VAT and corporation tax.
According to The Times, the campaign is being led by Mark Fullbrook, a former strategist for Boris Johnson.
The strategy is reportedly poised for implementation, and Mr. Zahawi was prepared to step down this week if he wasn’t appointed chancellor.
Although Mr. Zahawi’s “true blood and love was politics,” according to friends, he devoted himself to making a “f**k lot of money” before to being chosen as the Tory MP for Stratford-Upon-Avon in 2010. He’s a likeable wheeler-dealer type, according to a different friend in parliament, who also added that he has “a little Del Boy about him.”
The married father of three children Mr. Zahawi claimed yesterday that he was supporting Boris Johnson because he is “committed to the country that gave me everything” and denied that he was doing so to advance his own political ambitions. Others, though, have argued the opposite.
For the senior Tory, life has never been easy. Selling Teletubbies apparel at the height of the show’s prominence was an early business venture that failed, costing investors their money, including former Tory grandee Jeffrey Archer.
However, he would go on to become one of the wealthiest members of the House of Commons after studying chemical engineering at University College London and working with buddy Stephan Shakespeare to found YouGov.
Friends use this tale to explain his philosophy in business and politics. In 2002, he gambled on ITV’s Pop Idol, the most popular program on television at the moment.
Before the final between Will Young and Gareth Gates, the pundits were convinced that it would be Gates that would romp home.
Although YouGov polling indicated otherwise, he bet hundreds of pounds on Will Young to win, and when he did, the Chancellor made a fortune by outsmarting bookmakers and pundits.
It reveals a lot about him, according to Joe Twyman, a former YouGov head of political research, who spoke to Politico.
Although he enjoyed the showmanship and the fun of it all, he also wanted to make a f*** load of money.
He truly believed that what we were doing was right.
In addition to winning the wager, Nadhim promoted YouGov’s credibility and is reported to have made £5.7 million three years later when it floated.
One senior member of the administration described Zahawi as a calculated risk-taker, a description made today when he chose to support Boris Johnson with his presidency in jeopardy.
He is not careless. Before placing a wager, he checks the odds to make sure they are in his favor, the insider claimed.
Peter Kellner, a former president of YouGov, claimed that if Lord Sugar’s game show The Apprentice had been around in the 1980s and 1990s, he would have been a “perfect” contestant.
He was described as being “very sharp and shrewd in business terms,” and he added that it was not surprising that he succeeded in his role as the pandemic’s vaccines minister because “the job of the vaccine is like an Alan Sugar challenge writ very large.”
He is currently one of the front-runners to succeed Boris Johnson.
Tobias Ellwood, a close friend and vehement opponent of Mr. Johnson, has long declared his support for him if he runs for leader.
According to him, too many Cabinet members hold positions of responsibility that, given the environment since December 2019 and where we are now, may not be appropriate.
“His promotion [to Education Secretary] acknowledges that we have highly qualified individuals within the ranks of parliament with skill sets that can and should be utilized.”
Mr. Zahawi received a private education at University College London and King’s College School in West London, where he majored in chemical engineering.
One of the richest members of Congress, he later established the successful polling company YouGov and was named “entrepreneur of the year” by Ernst & Young.
His real estate empire is estimated to be worth £100 million.
The father of three was elected to the House of Representatives in 2010 and became the first Kurdish Iraqi to do so.
Before entering politics, Zahawi later served as Lord Archer’s assistant.
He initially supported Dominic Raab for Conservative Party Leader in 2019, but has subsequently switched his allegiance to Mr. Johnson.
From January 2018 to July 2019, he served as the children’s minister; at that time, he went to the contentious Presidents Club Ball.
After reports of harassment and sexism at the all-male event for the business elite, he allegedly received a reprimand from the chief whip.
He was made to apologize for using taxpayer funds to heat his stables on his Warwickshire estate during the MPs expenses controversy.
After using a legal loophole to conceal his total earnings the previous year, Mr. Zahawi came under new scrutiny regarding his income from side jobs.
From 2015 until he became a minister, the new chancellor made more than £1.3 million from his employment with Gulf Keystone, which is listed on the Bermuda Stock Exchange.
However, the amount of money he has made from side employment since becoming an MP in 2010 is unknown because he channeled it through the consultancy Zahawi and Zahawi, which he founded with his wife Lana before to winning the 2010 election for the Stratford seat.
No indication exists that any regulations or laws have been broken. Sir Alistair Graham, a former chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, however, told the Mirror that this may be seen as a deliberate effort to circumvent the laws so that he is exempt from disclosing the extent of his remuneration as a consultant.
“It is crucial to emphasize that MPs are personally responsible for making sure they abide by both the word and the spirit of the code of conduct.
Constituents have a right to know how much of their time and money is being used for activities unrelated to politics.
The YouGov founder, Mr. Zahawi, who was born in Iraq, was appointed chief strategy officer at Gulf Keystone Petroleum in 2015 and declared outside income equal to a £765,000 annual pay.
He worked between eight and 21 hours each week and was paid £20,125 per month.
In addition, he received a series of bonuses from January to June 2016 totaling £78,246.38 as well as a payment of £52,325 for 210 hours of work made in September 2015 that was backdated to July of the previous year.
In the past, Zahawi served as an advisor to Afren, an additional oil company that failed in 2015.
He most recently served as the Education Secretary, but prior to that, he was the Minister of Vaccines, where he was successful in leading the Government’s vaccination program after being appointed in November 2020.
He was appointed to the position of Education Secretary when Gavin Williamson was fired. Williamson had lost the public’s trust due to the examinations debacle during the Covid-19 outbreak.
His time in the position has not been without challenges, and in recent weeks he has been working to prevent teachers from going on strike, something he has called “unforgivable” months after students started going back to school after the pandemic’s disruption.
Under Theresa May, Mr. Zahawi was appointed as a junior minister of education, but he has never seriously wavered in his support for Boris Johnson.
He made the decision to assume the Chancellor position on Tuesday night in an effort to spare Mr. Johnson from a comedy of errors.
And right now, it appears inevitable that he will seek the position of Tories’ next leader.
Despite personally telling Mr. Johnson that he should resign, Mr. Zahawi, who was only appointed on Tuesday, said he was “heartbroken” that he hadn’t listened and was now undermining this government’s wonderful accomplishments.
The country “deserves a Government that is not simply stable, but which acts with integrity,” the chancellor declared in an unusual declaration.
Although Michelle Donelan, who was only appointed on Tuesday night, left her position as education secretary, Mr. Zahawi has not.
She informed Mr. Johnson, “I can see no way that you can continue in post,” but that the Cabinet must “force your hand” because there is no official means to get rid of him.
Brandon Lewis resigned from his position as Northern Ireland Secretary in the Cabinet, telling the Prime Minister that the time had come for “honesty, integrity, and mutual respect” in the government and that it had “passed the point of no return.”
As soon as he left, a number of other ministries followed, bringing the total number of MPs leaving their positions in the government and party since Tuesday evening to nearly 50.