Nadhim Zahawi has develop into the most recent Conservative MP to announce he’ll step down on the subsequent election.
With the occasion anticipated to face heavy losses within the basic election, the previous chancellor stated the time is true for “a brand new, energetic Conservative” to take over.
The Stratford-on-Avon MP turns into the sixty fourth Conservative to announce he’s standing down on the finish of this parliament, with the nation anticipated to go to the polls in October or November. Mr Zahawi, who served as chancellor in 2022, was dealing with a tricky re-election, with polls suggesting he was heading in the right direction to lose the seat, which has solely elected Conservatives since 1950.
In an announcement posted on X, Mr Zahawi stated: “Each morning as I shave my head within the mirror, I’ve to pinch myself. How is it {that a} boy from Baghdad who got here to those shores, fleeing persecution and unable to talk a phrase of English, was in a position to do as a lot as I’ve?”
The MP stated he was immensely privileged to have served throughout authorities, together with as schooling secretary, chancellor and because the chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster – throughout which period he coordinated the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.
However, quoting William Shakespeare, Mr Zahawi stated: “As my most well-known constituent as soon as wrote: ‘Go to your bosom; knock there and ask your coronary heart what it doth know’.
“I’ve come to really feel that the time is true for a brand new, energetic Conservative to struggle for the honour of representing Stratford-on-Avon and assuming the mantle of MP for Shakespeare. I’ll, after all, serve my constituents with dedication and willpower till then.”
Mr Zahawi was sacked whereas serving as Tory chairman after an ethics inquiry into the dealing with of his tax affairs discovered a “severe breach” of the Ministerial Code. It adopted an investigation into his monetary affairs that was first revealed by The Impartial in 2022.
This newspaper disclosed in July that 12 months that HMRC officers have been analyzing the tax affairs of the senior Tory determine after an inquiry was launched by the Nationwide Crime Company (NCA) in 2020.
He later agreed to pay a seven-figure sum to HM Income and Customs (HMRC) to settle a tax dispute.
In his resignation letter, Mr Zahawi stated: “My errors have been mine, and my successes have come from working with, and main, wonderful individuals.”
The 56-year-old was born in Iraq and got here to the UK as a baby when his Kurdish household fled Saddam Hussein’s regime, earlier than changing into the MP for Stratford-upon-Avon in 2010.
Mr Zahawi made his fortune with on-line polling firm YouGov and was additionally chief govt of Gulf Keystone Petroleum till 2018.
Different excessive profile Conservatives stepping down on the election embrace former prime minister Theresa Might, ex defence secretary Ben Wallace and former well being secretary Matt Hancock, who now sits as an impartial.