Reform is just turquoise Tories at this point... this might be a W to Tories because they get a chance for a more fresh start. I think it's gonna backfire.
They believe it will be different because of who is running it. I agree with you and think of them as "uniparty" too but that's not what reform leaning friends think. They believe it'll be totally different with Farage at the helm.
There's a reason why they brought out the political uniform football kit. Because they're positioning it like it's a Football Team.
You may have a load of ex-United players, but you've got the manager who took a non-league Woking from the conference to the Champions League in 6 seasons.
Can't wait for the utter betrayal on their faces when boriswave 2.0 happens, followed by "here's how its keir starmers fault nigel farage imported 7 bazillion third worlders"
I'm (not at all, actually) looking forward to the mix of 'this isn't what we voted for'/'Yes this is exactly what I voted for' when the economy goes promptly down the shitter and gangs of masked thugs are disappearing people off the street for disagreeing mildly with the government
All due to people either not expecting or actively wanting the Farage camp to follow in the footsteps of their ochre-faced hero
They're proud of this because they think it makes them look like a legitimate party to their voters, you are correct, they are filled with former Tories but they love playing to their voters that they are "the saviours of the UK" and they are desperate to keep that image up so they'll seize upon anything to make people believe that.
Reform's best growth opportunity is people who currently say they want to vote Tory - they don't actually get that many Labour voter defections compared to the Lib Dems / Greens, and claims that you're going to mobilise a mass movement of non-voters rarely work. Convincing people that they're basically going to be Tories with a harder line on immigration and a different brand is not a bad strategy for them.
"How could this not be a great thing? The founder of YouGov will be a huge asset to the party, and he knows the ins and outs of the Civil Service - he'll be a huge advantage!"
Given Zahawi freely admits having failed miserably, I'm not sure how much of an asset he can be, but Reform gonna Reform.
Apparently Zahawi getting sacked for multiple breaches of the Ministerial Code due to failing to declare he was being investigated by HMRC multiple times and attempting to coerce a journalist to withdraw a story about it using libel laws is not a problem for them.
Because they treat the electorate and their supporters with contempt.
They know that even though their very existence as a party has been formed mostly due to being an alternative to the now-effectively-dead Tory party from former Tories, they also know that their support in the polls is broadly just vibes-based and people don't really pay attention.
It's arrogance - they know that very little day-to-day political bad decisions can really knock their polling position so they're happy to just fill a gap and become Conservatives 2.0 - filled with mainly the same framework of privileged chancers willing to encourage people to vote against their own interests in mostly the same way.
Why not fill your party that's just going to be a vehicle for getting richer with people who have already shown to be very good at it within the Tory party? They know which way the wind is blowing.
Not only that but it's a greatest hits list of some of the worst Tories of the last decade who played a key part in where the country is now. Nadhim Zahawi, Jonathan Gullis, Nadine Dorries, Lee Anderson, Andrea Jenkyns, Jake Berry... who is next?
Laugh but also be mildly concerned. The Tories got us into this mess that caused Reform to surge past them in the first place.
Reform getting into power isn’t an issue per se.
However, if Reform effectively becomes the new Tory party, then there’s going to be a lot of voters who will go even further right when they see the same issues start to crop up.
The overarching problem with Reform is what comes after if they fail to do what their voters wanted?
There’s a lot of Tory voters who jumped onto Reform after the election, there is no doubt that people will continue to go further and further for the sole purpose of not voting any other party that is closer to the centre.
Realistically, it’s a simple solution to fix it.
If migration levels dropped enough, a lot of those voters will realise the lack of any other meaningful policies outside of anything related to immigration from Reform and maybe jump ship.
It would very much be like UKIP which basically died after Brexit. Reform is a single issue party, and it would be easy to pull off their coat by fixing the only issue they care about.
The mistake you're making is in assuming that Reform's position that immigration is the cause of all the country's problems is true.
It's not and so all the actual problems people are blaming on (which are mostly the result of conservative economic policies) it will still exist in a hypothetical world where the UK's immigration is zero. This would be the point where Reform moves onto a new target - existing immigrants - and Reform activists would start claiming that all it would take is for Labour to take on this policy.
UKIP didn't die after Brexit. Farage relaunched it as The Brexit Party, a new vehicle where he had absolute control. This was later rebranded as Reform and had the new mission of replacing the Conservative as the UK's default rightwing party. It is not going away - that's why all the Tories are defecting to it.
The overarching problem with Reform is what comes after if they fail to do what their voters wanted?
Labour or some left wing party will win an election then the electorate will expect them to fix all the problems overnight. Then people will get pissed off when they won't and some other populist party will rise.
My favourite part is how they use "former Chancellor" as if this suggests he was significant.
Those with memories that reach as far back as 2022 will know that he only became Chancellor because Johnson had lost the dressing room and was desperate for anyone to staff his cabinet, and that Zahawi was there at the bottom of the barrel.
He backstabbed Johnson only 2 days later and spent the next 2 months as a lame duck who couldn't even pass the first round of the leadership contest.
Didn't he insist on having his own staff, but Johnson wouldn't let him? So Boris sacked him and plucked some unknown backbencher to the second most powerful role in the country. A certain Rishi Sunak.
What a time...
Edit - my mistake, I'm mixing him up with Sajid Javid. We went through that many senior cabinet members during those few years, it's hard to keep track!
You're thinking of Sajid Javid, who was Johnson's first Chancellor. Zahawi was the guy who replaced Sunak after the latter had joined the cabinet's en masse resignations.
Johnson initially refused to recognise these resignations were the end of his premiership and desperately tried to form a cabinet from whatever dregs remained. Thus Zahawi got to put Chancellor on his CV without ever having to do any chancellor stuff.
Kind of. It was Michelle Donelan, and hilariously on the Wiki page for "Secretary of State for Education" her term length is listed as "35 hours".
She was entitled to the redundancy payment and someone asked the question about it, but she apparently refused to accept the payment in light of how bad it would look.
So let’s recruit people who ran government for 14 years and directly contributed to the country’s current predicament.
People “like” Reform because they aren’t establishment but at this point they come across as another Tory but more dysfunctional and think it will blow up in their faces.
So let’s recruit people who ran government for 14 years and directly contributed to the country’s current predicament.
And this man specifically has "carelessly but not deliberately" failed to pay almost an order of magnitude more tax than the median Brit earns (never mind pays in tax) over a lifetime. Truly a man of the people.
Chancellor when they were running the country into the ground and then party chair before being sacked over his tax affairs. But Reform is a completely different political party.
Farage is simultaneously the reason they are so popular but also the reason they need more people because he cannot do it alone and he’s himself not very popular.
Loyal's a bit of a stretch after be bullied Boris into making him chancellor then turned around and tried to bully him out of the PM's chair so he could have a go.
It would probably be bigger news if they had an ex-tory who didn't have some issue with taxes, expenses or violence against women. Am guessing along with his willingness to bend rules that his links to the oil industry is probably a big draw for Reform and their backers.
Didn't he 'accidentally' underpay his taxes by a few million, which seems like something you would notice given that its 10 times the wage of your primary job.
Oh and was it him that tried to charge the tax payer to heat his stables?
Reaches settlement with HMRC whilst Chancellor. Then fails to properly disclose this.
For a party that loves to act as though Labour are taking bribes left, right and centre, it really makes me chuckle that having some form of dodgy past is a pre-requisite to party membership.
It really is ridiculous when have the likes of Zahawi or Sunak or indeed Farage become MPs and people expect them to 'work for us' when their salary is such a small portion of their income they couldn't possibly put us ahead of who really 'pays their wages'.
I mean if any of us had a job that accounted for less than 10% of our earnings we would never say that was our 'job' we would say its our 'side hustle'.
Reform's popularity has mainly come from ex tory voters who got fed up with them. Their USP was "we aren't the tories but are still right wing". Now most of their big wigs are Tories.
The only good news here is that if they do get into power they’re going to be heavily watered down ideology wise, pretty much everyone in top positions is going to be a Tory come 2029 rather than from the EDL/Robinson/Rioter crowd and I don’t believe for a second any of these life long Tories have changed their views. We will likely get something very neoliberal and boring but with “tough rhetoric”, basically Boris Johnson but more friendly with Russia, but even that might be watered down if Maga is gone by 2028 and we have the Dems back in office.
Ah yes, the man sacked as Tory Party Chairman for “failing to maintain high standards of behaviour and to behave in a way that upholds the highest standards of propriety”.
That’s who Reform choose to headhunt for their ranks. And they’ll wang on about being better than Labour, no doubt.
I wonder who’ll be next to join them?
Maybe Jonathan “union leaders are commies” Gullis, or James “date rape jokes are funny” Cleverly?
Ah no, you’re forgetting the important thing about Reform. They’re not that bothered about your skin colour after all if you have enough green in your bank account.
I think there are plenty of stories about Reform that show they don’t care where the money comes from, as long as the cheque clears and they get to go on holiday off the back of it. Even if they need to read out the pre-prepared speech from the Kremlin.
Wasn’t he the guy who accepted the job as chancellor while the government collapsed around Johnson, only to resign the next day saying he couldn’t work for Johnson?
Yup. I'm sure it was because he was filled with a noble desire to serve the public good in office, and definitely not because he saw an opportunity to abuse his position to interfere in criminal proceedings that were causing him serious problems.
I really don't think people in the Westminster bubble get how much people loathe the Tories
I'm sure Reform see this as legitimising them as the dominant right-wing party in UK politics when to those outside the bubble it looks like (is) failed career politicians conveniently having a 'change of heart' about their beliefs so they can get back to some semblance of relevancy
Also calling him 'former Chancellor' is hilarious - didn't he hold the post for like a couple of days during all the Boris chaos?
As destructive as it is, theyre stuck between a rock and a hard place. Either dont take these people on and get labelled inexperienced, unstable and unreliable, or take them on and get called the tories 2.0 or the new establishment. personally i think the first is the better angle since they can hold on to their supposedly populist grassroots image but im glad theyre going the second route as it looks to be backfiring
There had to be a limit to the amount of defectors Reform can accept before they just become the Tories.
When your party is literally setting itself up as the alternative to the abomination of a Uniparty that has infected British politics for generations. You can’t just keep accepting the very uniparty people in without just becoming the uniparty.
I mean, there was a fair period when the Tories were being called the pro-Russia party (remember the Russian election interference report that was never disclosed?)
The thing that washed that stain off them was Boris and Rishi going hard on the support for Ukraine… which, fair enough really.
It makes sense when you realise that, just like the Tories, Reform are likely in the business of saying they are anti-immigration, without actually being anti-immigration.
Get a few headlines and cruel-sounding soundbites out there to make the public believe you're against immigration, then carry on importing cheap labour to feed the multinationals and drive up asset prices.
What's daft is all the people who bleat on and on about the 'uniparty' only to turn around and vote for Reform. Dorries and Zahawi were both in senior governmental roles, with the latter even briefly being the Chancellor. Beyond that he was Education Secretary and later the Tory Chair until his taxes brought him down. Plus he was a major cheerleader for Johnson in the second 2022 leadership election despite having called for him to resign earlier that same year!
There is also Labour, who are essentially what David Cameron’s Tories looked like back in the early 2010s… if you’re fancying a bit of classic right wing lmao.
What with the Conservatives copying Reform's pseudo-ICE plans and Reform welcoming a near-regiment of ex-Tory failures is there any point to them remaining two separate parties any more?
yes, to split the vote. cant wait for all of british politics to be effectively 2 parties split into 5-6 options all splitting each other and calling each other radicals whilst offering more of the same
Zahawi came here as a refugee from Iraq and his family were on benefits for a while when he was growing up - does he now think he and his family should have been deported? Or has Farage suddenly become very in favour of accepting Muslim refugees from the middle east and letting them claim benefits?
Reform voters, is Starmer really as bad as the people that ballooned immigration to record levels over 14 years, shut down community hospitals, treblled tuition fees, elect Liz Truss as leader who bombed the economy... These are the people you want back only worse and more pro-Russian and pro-billionaire?
And what is the stated reason? For free speech on X the same week that people made child porn using it.
You're voting for pedophile protectors and fascists.
The amount of 'Hes gone against everything in his manifesto' I see is mental.
When challenged you never get actual details on what he's gone against.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not super duper happy with Starmer or anything. I didn't like the backtracking on WFA, at least to the degree it was done (cut off should be FT min wage I think, optics look better on that) but whatever. It's usually small gripes I have.
For him to be -48 or whatever on approval despite not really doing anything too horrific is a little odd. And probably shows just how much the online narrative being pushed by bot farms etc. has taken over and done the harm it's needed to already.
Again, there are genuine reasons to be upset with Starmer. But I feel most are massively overblown compared to mistakes of his predecessors.
Starmer has undoubtedly made a few blunders, which it’s clear with hindsight (and should have been evident before) were mistakes. Though he would have come in for criticism whatever he did.
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.
Feel like if the tories had any sense they’d pivot back to the pre-Brexit era Tory party and let the post Brexit idiots go to reform, I’m thinking Rory Stewart style conservatism
There’s an increasing number of ‘middle earners’ feeling disenfranchised as there doesn’t seem to be a party for them, as much as I now loathe the tories, that was traditionally their voter base, and most voters are pretty disillusioned with Brexit now anyway so they should probably try to distance themselves from that fiasco if possible (i.e., shed as much of the current cohort as they can)
Issue is Kemi is one of the Brexit idiots and still loves playing the culture wars, need to drop her as well I think
Could see a pragmatic, technocratic ‘reduce welfare spending to lower taxes’ Tory party gaining ground, I still struggle to see a reform style Tory party winning given it’ll be too reminiscent of past chaos, though voters do seem to have short memories…
Think Farage will crumble the second he’s put under serious scrutiny nearer GE time, personally don’t see reform actually winning beyond the local level
It feels people are rightly pointing out it's contrary to their anti-uniparty narrative to keep taking on so many Tories, but my question is what is Farage promising?
It feels like there's going to be fight brewing between Richard Tice and Zia Yusuf over who has power. Now throw these ex-Tories in. They can't all be Chancellor.
After 14 years of Tory failure, and with many Tories now ‘defecting’ towards the even more right-wing and even more extreme ‘Reform’ party, it’s utterly amazing that anyone would even consider supporting them.
Though with the usual £ Billionaire funding - Reform are lying their way into politics just like Trump did.
The failure Farage, is no one to be running our country.
I am so disappointed by the level of support this abhorrent party is attracting.
Reform just proving themselves to be a rebranding exercise for the people that ruined this country. If the electorate are stupid enough to vote for these charlatans they deserve every bit of pain they get
Meet Reform, the new Conservative party, same as old conservative party, but trust us! Like you trusted us in 2010, and 2015 (because that TOO was a new conservative party) and in 2017 and again in 2019!
This time is different, because we're opposition and can tell you we'd do everything different! Even though we had a chance every other time to do these things, and it's our fault we're in this mess, we really really mean it this time! Just look at Farages winning smile, is that not a trustworthy face?
Great. So this country is headed for even MORE Tory leadership, which made the country worse over a decade and a half, but with even worse leadership in charge.
These people call themselves "patriots" whilst demanding proven gutter standards for their country.
The tax dodging Chancellor? That Nadhim Zahawi. A man who fiddled his tax affairs to heat his stables at our expense and later dismissed for breaching the ministerial code. Perfect for Reform, a tax dodging criminal chancer.
Vote reform get the Tories becomes ever more literal.
Another guy who nobody really liked and who contributed to our past decade of terrible governance.
It will be interesting whether or not the discordant nature of this actually cuts through. I'm sure it will become an increasingly big talking point down the road.
I genuinely don't understand these defections if Reform want to win things.
Scenario. So I hate the tories, so want to vote Reform for 'change', but they are filled with the corrupt scum ex tories I hate, so why do they get my vote?
Zahawi said "everything is broken", as if he wasn't part of the party that broke everything, and if he isn't now part of a party that promises to break everything once more.
I seriously considered offering a sweepstake to friends: how many months before the leopards eat Nadhim Zahawi's face? £10 entry. Pick any free number between 1 and 100. Closest to the actual number of months, as measured from 12th January 2026, wins. Winner takes all.
Zahawi, who is a former MP, said he felt the UK had reached a "dark and dangerous" moment, and the country needed "a glorious revolution"
Actually hysterical. A disgraced prominent member of the government that has held power for fourteen of the last fifteen years says the country's in shit and we need "a glorious revolution". Back into his party.
Not the best idea. There are some Tories with genuine substance who are a good addition to Reform. Danny Kruger, for example. Nadhim Zahawi isn't in that category.
I do think Farage is probably waiting for a few more Tory defectors before starting to build a potential cabinet with official roles.
People here will mock saying Reform is just Tories 2.0 but I don't think that is too much of an issue for Farage.
This country is generally a conservative leaning country - hence why they have been so successful historically.
I do think that a reform shadow government with a conservative footprint, combined with some bold new policy options would offer significant appeal.
Obviously reform wouldn't phrase it as Tories 2.0 but I think there is a strategy in presenting the public with an image of change while using some familiar faces implicitly signal to voters that they aren't voting too far from home.
If my organisation brought in the toxic, destructive remnants of a previous company that were completely sunk and were celebrating it, I'd be updating my linkedin in my lunch break.
Had in my company, it became really toxic and a horrible place to be. It’s amazing how powerful the yearly survey can be, next thing a team swooped in and those named were gone.
Not too bad now, the legacy still appears but slowly things have changed.
You’re talking about a party that had Andrea Jenkyns kick off their party conference by screaming i'm an insomniac and believe the privately educated, career politician, son a millionaire is a “man of the people”.
lol he says glorious revolution, what he means is a restoration of Victorian era aristocracy and wealth its the only revolution those leading reform are interested in, this should as if it shouldnt already worry those who arent wealthy who are leaning towards reform understand that reform dont and have never cared about the needs of the everyday person, their care is to the millionare and the billonare and it always has been, Farage is a car salesman and its about time they woke up.......but sadly too many wont
Snapshot of *Farage announces new defector - former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi! submitted by StGuthlac2025:
A Twitter embedded version can be found here
A non-Twitter version can be found here
An archived version can be found here or here.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
Why are they proud of this?
Proves everyone right that says Reform are just the life raft for failed Tories.
A vote for Reform is just a vote for a harder line version of 2019-24
Yep Reform are like the 'small boat' for tories looking to start a new grift
Yeah, but these aren't small boats from France. These are small boats as would be used by rats deserting a sinking ship.
It's a vote for Tories that did what they did for the hat 14 years led by Farage. A joke.
Reform is just turquoise Tories at this point... this might be a W to Tories because they get a chance for a more fresh start. I think it's gonna backfire.
You say that as if that isn't what these people want...
The Reform Party maybe, but people who claim to vote Reform are all about how ‘different’ this is from the ‘Uniparty’.
They believe it will be different because of who is running it. I agree with you and think of them as "uniparty" too but that's not what reform leaning friends think. They believe it'll be totally different with Farage at the helm.
There's a reason why they brought out the
political uniformfootball kit. Because they're positioning it like it's a Football Team.You may have a load of ex-United players, but you've got the manager who took a non-league Woking from the conference to the Champions League in 6 seasons.
Something like that doesn't go unnoticed, Neil
Completed it, mate.
Can't wait for the utter betrayal on their faces when boriswave 2.0 happens, followed by "here's how its keir starmers fault nigel farage imported 7 bazillion third worlders"
I'm (not at all, actually) looking forward to the mix of 'this isn't what we voted for'/'Yes this is exactly what I voted for' when the economy goes promptly down the shitter and gangs of masked thugs are disappearing people off the street for disagreeing mildly with the government
All due to people either not expecting or actively wanting the Farage camp to follow in the footsteps of their ochre-faced hero
I don't think a lot of people actually do, just that they're fed up of what we've had so far and don't see an alternative
I hope that's the case anyway
I know they'll take anyone, but I thought this one would be kept on the down-low
They boasted about recruiting Jonathan Gullis.
After that example, it's clear no Tory is too disgraced, inept or toxic with the public for Reform to not take pride in their membership.
They're proud of this because they think it makes them look like a legitimate party to their voters, you are correct, they are filled with former Tories but they love playing to their voters that they are "the saviours of the UK" and they are desperate to keep that image up so they'll seize upon anything to make people believe that.
Shitshow on steroids
Reform's best growth opportunity is people who currently say they want to vote Tory - they don't actually get that many Labour voter defections compared to the Lib Dems / Greens, and claims that you're going to mobilise a mass movement of non-voters rarely work. Convincing people that they're basically going to be Tories with a harder line on immigration and a different brand is not a bad strategy for them.
"The tories ruined the country, and liebour are even worse. That's why I'm voting for tories but in light blue!"
To quote someone on Facebook:
"How could this not be a great thing? The founder of YouGov will be a huge asset to the party, and he knows the ins and outs of the Civil Service - he'll be a huge advantage!"
Given Zahawi freely admits having failed miserably, I'm not sure how much of an asset he can be, but Reform gonna Reform.
Apparently Zahawi getting sacked for multiple breaches of the Ministerial Code due to failing to declare he was being investigated by HMRC multiple times and attempting to coerce a journalist to withdraw a story about it using libel laws is not a problem for them.
Because they treat the electorate and their supporters with contempt.
They know that even though their very existence as a party has been formed mostly due to being an alternative to the now-effectively-dead Tory party from former Tories, they also know that their support in the polls is broadly just vibes-based and people don't really pay attention.
It's arrogance - they know that very little day-to-day political bad decisions can really knock their polling position so they're happy to just fill a gap and become Conservatives 2.0 - filled with mainly the same framework of privileged chancers willing to encourage people to vote against their own interests in mostly the same way.
Why not fill your party that's just going to be a vehicle for getting richer with people who have already shown to be very good at it within the Tory party? They know which way the wind is blowing.
The reform website proudly proclaims:
I’m not sure that filling their ranks with members of said “failed Conservative Party” is really the way forward.
It reminds me very much of the saying “you can put lipstick on a pig but it’s still a pig”.
Not only that but it's a greatest hits list of some of the worst Tories of the last decade who played a key part in where the country is now. Nadhim Zahawi, Jonathan Gullis, Nadine Dorries, Lee Anderson, Andrea Jenkyns, Jake Berry... who is next?
*Disgraced former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi
You just have to laugh at this point.
Laugh but also be mildly concerned. The Tories got us into this mess that caused Reform to surge past them in the first place.
Reform getting into power isn’t an issue per se.
However, if Reform effectively becomes the new Tory party, then there’s going to be a lot of voters who will go even further right when they see the same issues start to crop up.
The overarching problem with Reform is what comes after if they fail to do what their voters wanted?
Maybe our approach is wrong?
Or, maybe we need to try it even harder! It can't fail a 7th time!
No, Seymour. It is the children who are wrong.
That’s most likely the outcome.
There’s a lot of Tory voters who jumped onto Reform after the election, there is no doubt that people will continue to go further and further for the sole purpose of not voting any other party that is closer to the centre.
Realistically, it’s a simple solution to fix it.
If migration levels dropped enough, a lot of those voters will realise the lack of any other meaningful policies outside of anything related to immigration from Reform and maybe jump ship.
It would very much be like UKIP which basically died after Brexit. Reform is a single issue party, and it would be easy to pull off their coat by fixing the only issue they care about.
The mistake you're making is in assuming that Reform's position that immigration is the cause of all the country's problems is true.
It's not and so all the actual problems people are blaming on (which are mostly the result of conservative economic policies) it will still exist in a hypothetical world where the UK's immigration is zero. This would be the point where Reform moves onto a new target - existing immigrants - and Reform activists would start claiming that all it would take is for Labour to take on this policy.
UKIP didn't die after Brexit. Farage relaunched it as The Brexit Party, a new vehicle where he had absolute control. This was later rebranded as Reform and had the new mission of replacing the Conservative as the UK's default rightwing party. It is not going away - that's why all the Tories are defecting to it.
What lol? UKIP became the BXP (one letter difference) which WAS a single issue party which then became reform
Labour or some left wing party will win an election then the electorate will expect them to fix all the problems overnight. Then people will get pissed off when they won't and some other populist party will rise.
Another populist party under Farage will rise*
Advance UK is further right than Reform backed by TR and Elon Musk. I think they could move traditional reform voters to them.
Reform getting into power absolutely is an issue.
Someone do something? If you are a senior civil servant or someone who has information that would bring it all down just do it
So uh... another disgraced former high ranking Tory?
My favourite part is how they use "former Chancellor" as if this suggests he was significant.
Those with memories that reach as far back as 2022 will know that he only became Chancellor because Johnson had lost the dressing room and was desperate for anyone to staff his cabinet, and that Zahawi was there at the bottom of the barrel.
He backstabbed Johnson only 2 days later and spent the next 2 months as a lame duck who couldn't even pass the first round of the leadership contest.
Didn't he insist on having his own staff, but Johnson wouldn't let him? So Boris sacked him and plucked some unknown backbencher to the second most powerful role in the country. A certain Rishi Sunak.
What a time...
Edit - my mistake, I'm mixing him up with Sajid Javid. We went through that many senior cabinet members during those few years, it's hard to keep track!
You're thinking of Sajid Javid, who was Johnson's first Chancellor. Zahawi was the guy who replaced Sunak after the latter had joined the cabinet's en masse resignations.
Johnson initially refused to recognise these resignations were the end of his premiership and desperately tried to form a cabinet from whatever dregs remained. Thus Zahawi got to put Chancellor on his CV without ever having to do any chancellor stuff.
My mistake! But still, what a time...
Didn't an Education Secretary manage to have a term measured in hours rather than days towards the end?
That rings a bell.
Were they the same person who qualified for a cabinet redundancy payment despite being back in the same job within a few weeks?
But yeah, crazy times.
Kind of. It was Michelle Donelan, and hilariously on the Wiki page for "Secretary of State for Education" her term length is listed as "35 hours".
She was entitled to the redundancy payment and someone asked the question about it, but she apparently refused to accept the payment in light of how bad it would look.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelle_Donelan
You’re thinking of Sajid Javid.
The order was Sajid Javid -> Rishi Sunak -> Nadhim Zahawi.
You're spot on, thank you!
So let’s recruit people who ran government for 14 years and directly contributed to the country’s current predicament.
People “like” Reform because they aren’t establishment but at this point they come across as another Tory but more dysfunctional and think it will blow up in their faces.
And this man specifically has "carelessly but not deliberately" failed to pay almost an order of magnitude more tax than the median Brit earns (never mind pays in tax) over a lifetime. Truly a man of the people.
Well Reform is the party of reprobates...
Is there any former high ranking Tory who isn't disgraced?
Uhh... Theresa May? Ken Clarke if he wasn't retired?
Gotta catch 'em all.
Not only that, also one who was born in the middle east and fled to the UK, reform seems like the right fit
Seems like a lot of Tories for the “We’re not the Tories” party
Turquoise Tories
Another seemingly big announcement but another blunder.
How can you paint yourself as not the Tories when you have the guy that was a loyal Johnson supporter?
Chancellor when they were running the country into the ground and then party chair before being sacked over his tax affairs. But Reform is a completely different political party.
It depends how much the public is paying attention.
I think those of us that follow politics these seems like a bad move but does the average person remember that much about him?
It’s a double edged sword really.
Farage is simultaneously the reason they are so popular but also the reason they need more people because he cannot do it alone and he’s himself not very popular.
This is a big opening for Kemi Badenoch.
I remember his heated stables on expenses.
I do think he slipped somewhat under the radar with Truss
Its basically just PR to say 'look we can attract the former Chancellor'.
Leaving out the aspect that Zahawi only became Chancellor because Johnson's government was collapsing.
Loyal's a bit of a stretch after be bullied Boris into making him chancellor then turned around and tried to bully him out of the PM's chair so he could have a go.
One week ago, this party said vaccines didn't work.
This week they have embraced the man behind the programme.
Doesn't he mean Tax Fraud Nadim Zahawi?
It would probably be bigger news if they had an ex-tory who didn't have some issue with taxes, expenses or violence against women. Am guessing along with his willingness to bend rules that his links to the oil industry is probably a big draw for Reform and their backers.
Zahawi had far more than your run of the mill council tax/stamp tax failure
Didn't he 'accidentally' underpay his taxes by a few million, which seems like something you would notice given that its 10 times the wage of your primary job.
Oh and was it him that tried to charge the tax payer to heat his stables?
He also claimed expenses to heat a stable block.
He paid back nearly 5m
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68999222
Reaches settlement with HMRC whilst Chancellor. Then fails to properly disclose this.
For a party that loves to act as though Labour are taking bribes left, right and centre, it really makes me chuckle that having some form of dodgy past is a pre-requisite to party membership.
It really is ridiculous when have the likes of Zahawi or Sunak or indeed Farage become MPs and people expect them to 'work for us' when their salary is such a small portion of their income they couldn't possibly put us ahead of who really 'pays their wages'.
I mean if any of us had a job that accounted for less than 10% of our earnings we would never say that was our 'job' we would say its our 'side hustle'.
Sacked for breaching the ministerial code Zahawi
Don't forget about his attempts to silence those who wanted to reveal his tax fraud:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/sep/30/nadhim-zahawis-lawyers-breached-code-to-stifle-hmrc-revelations
Oh dear, if I was Zahawi I certainly wouldn't be checking the youtube live chat for his announcement...
Vote reform, get the people that caused the mess in the first place.
Reform's popularity has mainly come from ex tory voters who got fed up with them. Their USP was "we aren't the tories but are still right wing". Now most of their big wigs are Tories.
The only good news here is that if they do get into power they’re going to be heavily watered down ideology wise, pretty much everyone in top positions is going to be a Tory come 2029 rather than from the EDL/Robinson/Rioter crowd and I don’t believe for a second any of these life long Tories have changed their views. We will likely get something very neoliberal and boring but with “tough rhetoric”, basically Boris Johnson but more friendly with Russia, but even that might be watered down if Maga is gone by 2028 and we have the Dems back in office.
Agree with this
Ah yes, the man sacked as Tory Party Chairman for “failing to maintain high standards of behaviour and to behave in a way that upholds the highest standards of propriety”.
That’s who Reform choose to headhunt for their ranks. And they’ll wang on about being better than Labour, no doubt.
I wonder who’ll be next to join them?
Maybe Jonathan “union leaders are commies” Gullis, or James “date rape jokes are funny” Cleverly?
Oh wait, Gullis already defected.
Isnt he one of the immigrants that my local reform voters insist they want out?
Ah no, you’re forgetting the important thing about Reform. They’re not that bothered about your skin colour after all if you have enough green in your bank account.
Even if it's tax payers green.
I think there are plenty of stories about Reform that show they don’t care where the money comes from, as long as the cheque clears and they get to go on holiday off the back of it. Even if they need to read out the pre-prepared speech from the Kremlin.
That's May, and her weed business.
Hey now, that's very unfair on Zahawi!
He also became chancellor for about five minutes in a clumsy attempt to quash a serious ongoing investigation into tax fraud he committed.
Wasn’t he the guy who accepted the job as chancellor while the government collapsed around Johnson, only to resign the next day saying he couldn’t work for Johnson?
Yup. I'm sure it was because he was filled with a noble desire to serve the public good in office, and definitely not because he saw an opportunity to abuse his position to interfere in criminal proceedings that were causing him serious problems.
Take the job, shut down the investigation into your taxes, resign, probably collect the resigning bonus.
At a certain point, if the system says he can do that, he’d have been mad not to.
Remember kids: A vote for Reform is a vote for the Tories.
A vote for disgraced Tories.
Is there another kind post-2019?
The worst of the Tories
Oh his £5 million of careless mistakes for tax avoidance.
Jesus, I would say scraping the barrel but there is only sawdust.
TBF I don't blame him for that part, he saw up close how tax money gets pissed-away unto many scores of billions.
As with Dorries and Gullis, I have to ask....
Does it even really count as a 'defection' if you don't actually have a seat?
Reform are just hoovering up failed former Tory MPs who have fuck all else to do, and claimimg it's some sort of coup.
They're just hoovering up the people who got sacked for inflicting the last 14 years of government, and its associated brexit, on us.
Think of it like a 'gourmet restaurant' that only hires people who got sacked from McDonalds
I really don't think people in the Westminster bubble get how much people loathe the Tories
I'm sure Reform see this as legitimising them as the dominant right-wing party in UK politics when to those outside the bubble it looks like (is) failed career politicians conveniently having a 'change of heart' about their beliefs so they can get back to some semblance of relevancy
Also calling him 'former Chancellor' is hilarious - didn't he hold the post for like a couple of days during all the Boris chaos?
As destructive as it is, theyre stuck between a rock and a hard place. Either dont take these people on and get labelled inexperienced, unstable and unreliable, or take them on and get called the tories 2.0 or the new establishment. personally i think the first is the better angle since they can hold on to their supposedly populist grassroots image but im glad theyre going the second route as it looks to be backfiring
There had to be a limit to the amount of defectors Reform can accept before they just become the Tories.
When your party is literally setting itself up as the alternative to the abomination of a Uniparty that has infected British politics for generations. You can’t just keep accepting the very uniparty people in without just becoming the uniparty.
Don't be so stupid to believe Reform and this Uniparty bollocks then. Reform are simply a pro-Russia party, that is all.
I mean, there was a fair period when the Tories were being called the pro-Russia party (remember the Russian election interference report that was never disclosed?)
The thing that washed that stain off them was Boris and Rishi going hard on the support for Ukraine… which, fair enough really.
Just a gentle reminder for everyone to remember when discussing or thinking about Reform, this party is for the working people...
https://taxpolicy.org.uk/2023/01/19/zahawi_story/
Nadhim Zahawi, born in Baghdad, joined anti-immigration party. I can't understand how this works.
It makes sense when you realise that, just like the Tories, Reform are likely in the business of saying they are anti-immigration, without actually being anti-immigration.
Get a few headlines and cruel-sounding soundbites out there to make the public believe you're against immigration, then carry on importing cheap labour to feed the multinationals and drive up asset prices.
All bark and no bite politics.
Reform really are becoming the ‘Reformed’ Conservative Party - we’d be daft to vote them in as chances are ex Tories like him would be in the cabinet.
But if you want a right wingish government Reform or Tories are the only options
What's daft is all the people who bleat on and on about the 'uniparty' only to turn around and vote for Reform. Dorries and Zahawi were both in senior governmental roles, with the latter even briefly being the Chancellor. Beyond that he was Education Secretary and later the Tory Chair until his taxes brought him down. Plus he was a major cheerleader for Johnson in the second 2022 leadership election despite having called for him to resign earlier that same year!
Funny how Starmer gets attacked for being "right wing" too.
What do they want other than "GAS THE FORRINS!"
There is also Labour, who are essentially what David Cameron’s Tories looked like back in the early 2010s… if you’re fancying a bit of classic right wing lmao.
So we've got Reform, Conservative, Labour, and Libdem uniparty?
Yeah but their abject hate for anybody non-white isn't big enough.
Though they're not racist voters at all
Shock horror some people are right wing and will vote for a right wing party.
A right wing part full of the people they rejected at the last election?
They think that under a Farage led party things will be different. Not sure I agree with them but that's what reform voting friends tell me.
At what point do Reform's membership actually say something about just picking up former Tories
Perhaps if all the dross from the Tories defect, there is a chance for some sensible people to get back into the party
Reform is the Tory Party's septic tank
What with the Conservatives copying Reform's pseudo-ICE plans and Reform welcoming a near-regiment of ex-Tory failures is there any point to them remaining two separate parties any more?
yes, to split the vote. cant wait for all of british politics to be effectively 2 parties split into 5-6 options all splitting each other and calling each other radicals whilst offering more of the same
Zahawi came here as a refugee from Iraq and his family were on benefits for a while when he was growing up - does he now think he and his family should have been deported? Or has Farage suddenly become very in favour of accepting Muslim refugees from the middle east and letting them claim benefits?
"He also admitted failures to deal with mass migration, strengthen the armed forces, and said the Tories passed poor legislation."
So why would anyone want him then? "Man, when we were in power we were fucking awful...vote for me?"
Reform voters, is Starmer really as bad as the people that ballooned immigration to record levels over 14 years, shut down community hospitals, treblled tuition fees, elect Liz Truss as leader who bombed the economy... These are the people you want back only worse and more pro-Russian and pro-billionaire?
And what is the stated reason? For free speech on X the same week that people made child porn using it.
You're voting for pedophile protectors and fascists.
Yes well all the Reform bots are heavily pushing the Anti-Starmer rhetoric. That’s one of the things that Russian bot farms are for…
It's insane.
The amount of 'Hes gone against everything in his manifesto' I see is mental.
When challenged you never get actual details on what he's gone against.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not super duper happy with Starmer or anything. I didn't like the backtracking on WFA, at least to the degree it was done (cut off should be FT min wage I think, optics look better on that) but whatever. It's usually small gripes I have.
For him to be -48 or whatever on approval despite not really doing anything too horrific is a little odd. And probably shows just how much the online narrative being pushed by bot farms etc. has taken over and done the harm it's needed to already.
Again, there are genuine reasons to be upset with Starmer. But I feel most are massively overblown compared to mistakes of his predecessors.
Starmer has undoubtedly made a few blunders, which it’s clear with hindsight (and should have been evident before) were mistakes. Though he would have come in for criticism whatever he did.
The right-wing is strongly pushing their agenda..
But he wants to freeze my granny, let paedos free, and has Ukrainian rentboys, or something!
Just another rejected Tory to the Turquoise Tories.
People say that Reform is just the Tories dressed up but it's worse than that. It's the worst part of the Tories.
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.
Zahawi has a short memory.
https://conservativehome.com/2015/03/23/nadhim-zahawi-mp-in-farages-britain-it-would-be-legal-to-discriminate-against-me-on-the-grounds-of-race/
So if you don’t want the ‘uniparty’, vote Green I guess?
Feel like if the tories had any sense they’d pivot back to the pre-Brexit era Tory party and let the post Brexit idiots go to reform, I’m thinking Rory Stewart style conservatism
There’s an increasing number of ‘middle earners’ feeling disenfranchised as there doesn’t seem to be a party for them, as much as I now loathe the tories, that was traditionally their voter base, and most voters are pretty disillusioned with Brexit now anyway so they should probably try to distance themselves from that fiasco if possible (i.e., shed as much of the current cohort as they can)
Issue is Kemi is one of the Brexit idiots and still loves playing the culture wars, need to drop her as well I think
Could see a pragmatic, technocratic ‘reduce welfare spending to lower taxes’ Tory party gaining ground, I still struggle to see a reform style Tory party winning given it’ll be too reminiscent of past chaos, though voters do seem to have short memories…
Think Farage will crumble the second he’s put under serious scrutiny nearer GE time, personally don’t see reform actually winning beyond the local level
It feels people are rightly pointing out it's contrary to their anti-uniparty narrative to keep taking on so many Tories, but my question is what is Farage promising?
It feels like there's going to be fight brewing between Richard Tice and Zia Yusuf over who has power. Now throw these ex-Tories in. They can't all be Chancellor.
It's an incredibly old technique, keep the underlings fighting amongst themselves rather than uniting to change leader, never let them feel secure.
After 14 years of Tory failure, and with many Tories now ‘defecting’ towards the even more right-wing and even more extreme ‘Reform’ party, it’s utterly amazing that anyone would even consider supporting them.
Though with the usual £ Billionaire funding - Reform are lying their way into politics just like Trump did.
The failure Farage, is no one to be running our country. I am so disappointed by the level of support this abhorrent party is attracting.
A tax dodging prick is a big scalp? He was very unpopular during his short stint as Chancellor where his interesting tax issues cropped up.
If (which is a big if) Labour, Lib Dem’s and Greens can be clever about this they might actually benefit from Reform taking in his tax dodging moron.
Reform just proving themselves to be a rebranding exercise for the people that ruined this country. If the electorate are stupid enough to vote for these charlatans they deserve every bit of pain they get
The other two thirds of us certainly wouldn't however
Meet Reform, the new Conservative party, same as old conservative party, but trust us! Like you trusted us in 2010, and 2015 (because that TOO was a new conservative party) and in 2017 and again in 2019!
This time is different, because we're opposition and can tell you we'd do everything different! Even though we had a chance every other time to do these things, and it's our fault we're in this mess, we really really mean it this time! Just look at Farages winning smile, is that not a trustworthy face?
Great. So this country is headed for even MORE Tory leadership, which made the country worse over a decade and a half, but with even worse leadership in charge.
These people call themselves "patriots" whilst demanding proven gutter standards for their country.
I really really really hope that Liz Truss will defect as well. I think that will seal the deal of a Reform loss.
The tax dodging Chancellor? That Nadhim Zahawi. A man who fiddled his tax affairs to heat his stables at our expense and later dismissed for breaching the ministerial code. Perfect for Reform, a tax dodging criminal chancer.
Reform - we see better than the Tories because we are just the Tories who went through the hogwash.
Vote reform get the Tories becomes ever more literal.
Another guy who nobody really liked and who contributed to our past decade of terrible governance.
It will be interesting whether or not the discordant nature of this actually cuts through. I'm sure it will become an increasingly big talking point down the road.
There's always a tweet
https://x.com/i/status/575931674955022336
Link doesn't work or it's been deleted
"Vote Reform. Vote Conservatives.
This was a Public Service Broadcast message on behalf of the Labour Party"
The man who said he'd be frightened to live in a country run by Farage. What an absolute mess they are.
How can they do things differently if they are made up of all the same people
I genuinely don't understand these defections if Reform want to win things.
Scenario. So I hate the tories, so want to vote Reform for 'change', but they are filled with the corrupt scum ex tories I hate, so why do they get my vote?
Another proven dishonest politician? Nice one, lads...
Looks like the Tories are migrating...
Zahawi said "everything is broken", as if he wasn't part of the party that broke everything, and if he isn't now part of a party that promises to break everything once more.
This will go down like a cup of cold sick, should have publicly rejected him to show a rejection of the old uniparty.
Reform really is just the Tory Party with the mask fully off. Farage's long game to get the Tories to fall behind him are seemingly paying off.
I seriously considered offering a sweepstake to friends: how many months before the leopards eat Nadhim Zahawi's face? £10 entry. Pick any free number between 1 and 100. Closest to the actual number of months, as measured from 12th January 2026, wins. Winner takes all.
Bring out the lettuce
Actually hysterical. A disgraced prominent member of the government that has held power for fourteen of the last fifteen years says the country's in shit and we need "a glorious revolution". Back into his party.
Not the best idea. There are some Tories with genuine substance who are a good addition to Reform. Danny Kruger, for example. Nadhim Zahawi isn't in that category.
Reform obviously aren't going to attract any decent politicians.
I do think Farage is probably waiting for a few more Tory defectors before starting to build a potential cabinet with official roles.
People here will mock saying Reform is just Tories 2.0 but I don't think that is too much of an issue for Farage.
This country is generally a conservative leaning country - hence why they have been so successful historically.
I do think that a reform shadow government with a conservative footprint, combined with some bold new policy options would offer significant appeal.
Obviously reform wouldn't phrase it as Tories 2.0 but I think there is a strategy in presenting the public with an image of change while using some familiar faces implicitly signal to voters that they aren't voting too far from home.
How are they going to do that with 5 MPs?
Can't wait for this to dominate BBC News all week
Boris will be revealed around Christmas.
If my organisation brought in the toxic, destructive remnants of a previous company that were completely sunk and were celebrating it, I'd be updating my linkedin in my lunch break.
But this is England, so it's only a Monday.
Had in my company, it became really toxic and a horrible place to be. It’s amazing how powerful the yearly survey can be, next thing a team swooped in and those named were gone.
Not too bad now, the legacy still appears but slowly things have changed.
Uniparty continues to be the Uniparty.
Think this is the guy who accepted a high-ranking cabinet position from Boris, just to immediately stab him in the back.
Yeah seems about right
The choice next election is going to be Labour, or one of two Tory parties.
Woopeee.
I wonder if Liz Truss would 'defect' to Reform? I've put that in quotes as God knows what group she actually sees herself as part of now.
I mean, a former PM would be big news, but would they have her? Is she too batshit even for them?
You’re talking about a party that had Andrea Jenkyns kick off their party conference by screaming i'm an insomniac and believe the privately educated, career politician, son a millionaire is a “man of the people”.
They are batshit.
lol he says glorious revolution, what he means is a restoration of Victorian era aristocracy and wealth its the only revolution those leading reform are interested in, this should as if it shouldnt already worry those who arent wealthy who are leaning towards reform understand that reform dont and have never cared about the needs of the everyday person, their care is to the millionare and the billonare and it always has been, Farage is a car salesman and its about time they woke up.......but sadly too many wont
I'm lukewarm reform but dragging the worst of the failed Tory party in is not making me warm up to them
“A vote for Reform is a vote for change, we are different than the Tories”
Yep same shit different name
There's genuinely no party for me anymore. I feel extremely politically orphaned.
Ha ha ha… brilliant chief of the Tory grifter…
Shows Reform are controlled opposition and an extension of the UniParty
Tax dodging Iraqi immigrant, on what planet will he bring in votes.