Given that Nadhim Zahawi fled Saddam Hussein’s horrific government in Iraq in the 1970s and landed in Britain as a Kurdish refugee, his political climb was astounding.
He has previously spoken about how, at age 11, he couldn’t speak a word of English and had to sit at the back of a school in the UK.
From a shed-based office, Mr. Zahawi went on to establish the polling company YouGov and amass a £100 million real estate portfolio.
The 55-year-old has already been likened to Lord Sugar’s Apprentice competitor and Del Boy from Only Fools & Horses.
A little more than 12 years after beginning his political career as a Tory MP, he was appointed Chancellor.
But following a stunning political collapse brought on by a bitter dispute over his tax troubles, he is now in the political wilderness.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has dismissed him from his position as head of the Tory Party after discovering a “severe infringement” of ministerial regulations.
It has raised concerns over what Mr. Zahawi may do going forward. Could he resign from his position as an MP and resume his business?
Or will the three-time married father seek to restore his political standing from the House of Commons’ backbenches?
In a letter to the prime minister, the Stratford-on-Avon MP hinted at his short-term goals when he promised to back Mr. Sunak “in the coming years.”
A skilled showjumper can see his present struggles as merely another obstacle to overcome in life.
Although Mr. Zahawi’s “true blood and passion was politics,” according to friends, he put all of his effort into generating a “f**k lot of money” before to being chosen as the MP for Stratford-Upon-Avon in 2010.
He’s a likeable wheeler-dealer type, according to a different buddy in parliament, who also added that he has “a little Del Boy about him.”
But Mr. Zahawi’s commercial journey was not always without difficulty.
Selling Teletubbies apparel during the height of the show’s prominence was an early business endeavor 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 start YouGov.
Friends use this tale to describe his philosophy in business and politics. In 2002, he gambled on ITV’s Pop Idol, the most popular program on television at the moment.
The analysts believed that Gareth Gates would easily win the final matchup between him and Will Young.
Although YouGov polls 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 experts.
It reveals a lot about him, according to Joe Twyman, a former YouGov director of political research, who spoke to Politico. Although he appreciated the theatrics and the enjoyment of it all, he also wanted to earn a f*** lot of money. He really thought that what we were doing was correct.
In addition to winning the wager, Mr. Zahawi used it to boost YouGov’s reputation, and three years later, when it floated, he is claimed to have profited £5.7 million.
In the past, Mr. Zahawi has been characterized as a calculated risk-taker.
He is not careless. Before placing a wager, he checks the odds to make sure they are in his favor, the source said.
Peter Kellner, a former president of YouGov, said that if Lord Sugar’s game program The Apprentice had been around in the 1980s and 1990s, he would have been a “ideal” competitor.
He said that “he was highly keen and clever in business terms.”
In light of the fact that “the work of the vaccine is like an Alan Sugar challenge writ extremely big,” he said, it is not surprising that Mr. Zahawi was successful in his role as minister of vaccines during the Covid epidemic.
Mr. Zahawi had a private education at University College London and King’s College School in West London, where he majored in chemical engineering.
He was the first Kurdish Iraqi to be elected to Parliament when he was elected MP for Stratford-on-Avon in 2010.
From January 2018 until July 2019, he served as the government’s first minister for children. During that period, he attended 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.
Before becoming the minister of vaccines in November 2020, he served as business and industry minister in Boris Johnson’s government.
In September 2021, when he took over for the beleaguered Sir Gavin Williamson, Mr. Zahawi was elevated to the Cabinet as Education Secretary thanks to the UK’s Covid vaccine rollout’s success.
Mr. Zahawi took over as Treasury director after Rishi Sunak’s abrupt departure as Mr. Johnson’s Chancellor in July of last year.
This assignment finally resulted in his demise.
His relocation to No. 11 coincided with an investigation into his tax troubles, even though he ultimately served as Chancellor for barely two months, before Liz Truss succeeded Mr. Johnson as Prime Minister.
According to an examination conducted by Sir Laurie Magnus, Mr. Sunak’s ethical advisor, Mr. Zahawi did not mention an HMRC investigation against him when he assumed the position of Treasury secretary.
When Mr. Zahawi was later named Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster by Ms. Truss in September or Tory chairman by Mr. Sunak in October, Sir Laurie criticized him for failing to disclose his tax issue or the fact that he had paid a penalty to HMRC in an appropriate manner.
Prior to entering the ministry, Mr. Zahawi was compelled to apologize for using government funds to heat his stables on his Warwickshire estate during the MPs expenses controversy.
In the past, he was questioned about his side occupations had before joining the government.
When he was named chief strategy officer at Gulf Keystone Petroleum in 2015, he disclosed outside income that was equal to a £765,000 yearly pay.
He worked between eight and 21 hours each week and was paid £20,125 per month.
In addition, he got a series of incentives from January to June 2016 totaling £78,246.38 as well as a payment of £52,325 for 210 hours of labor completed 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 business that failed in 2015.
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