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Zahawi claims that UK is 'sick' as he explains his defection
Nadhim Zahawi is speaking now. He says “Britain needs Nigel Farage as prime minister”.
His declaration will come as a shock to his old colleagues, he says. But he says other people will not be surprised.
We can all see that our beautiful, ancient, kind, magical island story has reached a dark and dangerous chapter.
He says in Westminster people may think things are going fine.
But that is not the experience of people around the country, if they are trying to get a GP appointment, or if they want to express an opinion on X, or if they just want their children “to be taught facts, not harmful fictions at school”, or if they are being “crushed into the dirt by ever growing taxes”.
Addressing these people, he says:
You know in your heart of hearts that our wonderful country is sick.
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Q: What is your response to the fact that there are now 34 contemporaries of Nigel Farage at Dulwich College who recall Farage being racist when he was a pupil there?
Farage says there are so many allegations of racism being thrown around the whole time that they “almost become meaningless”.
Zahawi says, anticipating this question, he made a point of looking up all the things in Britain that have been called racist. He says the list includes coffee, picnics, electricity and mathematics. He claims this shows that this line of criticism is “a joke”.
Farage says even the Traitors has been called racist, by the Guardian. He must be referring to this.
Q: [To Zahawi] Do you want to return to the Commons? Or has Reform UK offered you the peerage that the Conservative party never gave you?
Zahawi says no promises have been made, and no promises have been sought?
Q: Who approached whom about the defection?
Zahawi says he has known Farage for years. And he also says Nick Candy, the Reform UK treasurer, is a mutual friend.
He says he allowed his Conservative party membership to lapse over Chrismas because he wanted to reflect on his future political allegiance.
Q: Are you comfortable making money from X because of the payments you get for your posts that attract a big audience?
Farage claims he does not make money from X because of the amount he has to spend on staff to operate his social media accounts.
Farage says 'tragedy of Brexit is we didn't do it'
Q: Would you refuse to pay if the EU includes an exit payment in any new deal with the UK to reduce SPS checks?
Farage says:
The tragedy of Brexit is we didn’t do it.
We had the pandemic and that’s that. That’s the argument that always gets made. We had the pandemic, therefore we didn’t get time.
For Keir Starmer to realign with single market rules is easy because we never, ever took the opportunity or the potential advantage of moving away from it. So I’m absolutely furious at both of them.
But he also says he is not convinced that Starmer would “sign up to something as treacherous as this”.
Farage says he would not pull back any British military deployments at eastern border of Nato territory
Q: [To Farage] You say you would not support troop deployments to Ukraine. And you think Nato expansion was a mistake.Would you support the continuation of UK troop deployments at the eastern border of Nato territory?
Farage says he said in 2014 that Nato expansion would provoke Russia.
But he supports Nato, he says. And he says Trump has been good for Nato because he has led to other Nato countries increasing defence spending.
Farage dismisses report claiming Trump has lost faith in him
Q: [To Farage] A report in the Sunday Times yesterday said that Donald Trump has lost faith in you because he does not think you are for real. Are you for real?
Farage says he met Trump at Mar-A-Lago in November and Trump has always been “enormously supportive” of him.
He says they do not see eye to everything.
Referring to the report, he says:
Sometimes journalists write things that may not necessarily be wholly true.
Q: [To Zahawi] Did you seek any assurances from Reform UK about its vaccines policy before you joined?
Zahawi again says this is a stupid question to raise. He says he would not be here if Nigel Farage did not think the vaccine programme had been good for Britain.
Zahawi insults journalist who asks why he is joining party that platformed US adviser who suggested vaccines caused king's cancer
Q: [To Zahawi] The speaker at the Reform UK conference actually blamed the policy that you implemented for the king’s cancer. And, at that conference, David Bull, the party chair, said the speaker was contributing to Reform’s policy on this.
Farage intervenes. He says Bull spoke about this at the Reform UK rally on Friday night in London. He said he was proud of the UK’s record on vaccines.
Zahawi tells the journalist that he asked a “really stupid question” and that he expected better of him.
(It was not a stupid question at all. It was a fair one, which Zahawi refused to address.)
Q: As a former Cabinet Office minister, do you have any plans to help Reform UK take on the civil service?
Zahawi says, as a minister, he saw the best and the worst of the civil service.
He says he only took on the job of vaccines minister when Boris Johnson promised that he would be able to act at all time on the authority of the PM. Johnson asked what that would mean. Zahawi says he told Johnson it meant he would always have to have access to the PM very quickly.
He says he was encouraged by Farage a few minutes ago about wanting to see the evidence about the Australian social media ban before making policy. That is how policy should be made, he says.
Q: Isn’t there a danger, with defections like this, that people will see you as a new version of the Tories?
Farage claims the differences between Reform UK and the Conservatives are enormous. He was opposed to the EU long before the Tories, he says.
Q: Have you been promised a role with Reform? And will you stand to be an MP?
Zahawi says there have been “no promises” about jobs. He says he is a footsoldier. He is joining because he thinks Britain cannot afford 10 years of Labour government, he says, suggesting he does not see any prospect of the Tories winning the next election.
Farage says he 100% supports a ban on smartphones in school. But, in relation to the Australian ban on under-16s having social media accounts, he says he wants to wait and see how that works.
Q: As a former vaccines minister, how do you feel about Reform UK platforming a vaccine sceptic at its conference?
Farage jumps into answer, despite he question being addressed to Zahawi. He says the speaker at the conference was an adviser to US administration. He was not setting out Reform UK policy.
Zahawi says he respects a party that values free speech.
Farage plays down significance of Zahawi being sacked over tax affairs when he was in cabinet
Farage and Zahawi are now taking questions.
Q: [From the BBC’s Iain Watson] You were sacked from cabinet over your tax affairs. Aren’t you an establishment figure yourself?
Zahawi says the mistake he made was not being specifici in the settlement he made with HM Revenue and Customs to the Cabinet Office.
Farage says in the US most successful people in business have had some failures. So he was not surprised to see his new mayoral candidate, Laila Cunningham, attacked in a paper last week over some past business failures.
On Zahawi’s tax affairs, he says “there’s nobody with a complex business empire that does not have to have negotiations at some point with HMRC”.
