Nadhim Zahawi to stand down as Conservative MP at election

Former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi has said he will stand down as an MP at the next election.

"My mistakes have been mine," he announced on X in a lengthy statement.

Mr Zahawi was sacked as Tory Party chairman in January last year after an inquiry found he had failed to disclose that HMRC was investigating his tax affairs.

He has been MP for Stratford-on-Avon for 14 years and said it had been his "greatest honour" to serve its people.

Mr Zahawi is the 64th Conservative MP to announce he'll stand down at the next election, and the 104th MP.

Referring to the role as the "MP for Shakespeare" he said: "As my most famous constituent once wrote: 'Go to your bosom; knock there and ask your heart what it doth know'.

"I have come to feel that the time is right for a new, energetic Conservative to fight for the honour of representing Stratford-on-Avon and assuming the mantle of MP for Shakespeare."

Mr Zahawi was education secretary from September 2021 to July 2022 and had a short stint as chancellor of the exchequer between July and September 2022.

In November 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, he was appointed vaccines minister and oversaw the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine programme for nearly a year.

Born in Iraq in 1967, he could have been sent to fight in the 1980s Iran-Iraq War but instead he and his parents fled Iraq and he grew up in the UK.

In his statement on X, Mr Zahawi said: "Every morning as I shave my head in the mirror, I have to pinch myself. How is it that a boy from Baghdad who came to these shores, fleeing persecution and unable to speak a word of English, was able to do as much as I have":[]}