Nigel Farage accused of ‘harking back to a bygone era’ by Tory MP as former Chancellor joins Reform UK

Announcing his defection today, Mr Zahawi said that our "wonderful country is sick and needs Reform".

He said: "I’ve made my mind that the team that will deliver for this nation will be the team that Nigel will put together, and that’s why I’ve decided that I’m joining Reform UK."

Reacting to his former colleague's defection, Mr Shastri-Hurst told GB News: "I'm disappointed Nadhim has made this decision.

"I've known him well, I think he's a good man. I don't agree with his diagnosis of the issues that are facing this country and the reasons for defecting to Reform."

He added: "I think that it's the wrong decision to make. What does this say about Reform if they can't be cultivating their own brand? They are leaning back on previous era Conservative ministers to deliver their agenda.

"That suggests that they don't have those new ideas for the country that I think we are developing as the Conservative Party, looking forward, looking at having a modern direction of conservatism in this country, and I think that's the right direction.

"I think this is harking back to a bygone era, which doesn't actually serve the Reform movement any good whatsoever."

Challenged by host Martin Daubney on whether he agrees with the "below the belt" comments made by the Conservatives about Mr Zahawi, the Tory MP responded: "They're not words I would use, but what I would say is Nadhim has been very critical of Reform in the past.

"He's also been very critical of Nigel Farage in the past, so there are questions to be raised as how he's had a complete volte face in terms of his views of Mr Farage and how Mr Farage has had a completely different assessment of Nadhim at this point in time."

Arguing that Mr Zahawi and his new boss have "fundamental differences of opinion" on domestic issues, Mr Shastri-Hurst told GB News: "Take vaccines, for example and the comments that were made at the Reform conference, which would fly entirely in the face of what Nadhim did when he was vaccines minister."

Criticising Mr Zahawi's decision further, the Tory MP said: "I don't agree with his assessment that the Conservative Party are not the party to deal with the difficult issues.

"Look, it's not unusual for former parliamentarians to lapse their membership after they've ceased to be a member of parliament, but the question that's open to Nadhim is if he felt so strongly on these issues, why did he why was he not more vocal about them and why did he not do more about them when he had the opportunity in Government?"

Defending the defection, GB News Political Editor Christopher Hope responded: "I do think he's a great hire, by the way, on communication grounds.

"He talks really, really well. He's a very, very good politician, he's an entrepreneur, he arrived here from Iraq and he loves this country."

He added: "He's got a huge story to tell. I had thought he was leaving politics behind him, actually, so now he's back, it's good.

"There are question marks for both Farage and for him personally, but I think on balance it's a good hire by Farage."

A source has told GB News that Nadhim Zahawi tried for Tory peerage "several times" before defecting to Reform.

The source explained: "Nadhim asked for a peerage several times. Given he was sacked for his dodgy tax affairs, this was never going to happen.

"His defection tells you everything you need to know about Reform being a repository for disgraced politicians."