Sep 103 min read

ANDREW PIERCE: Nadhim Zahawi plots one more comeback as London mayor

PUBLISHED: 01:27, 9 September 2024 | UPDATED: 01:46, 9 September 2024

Former chancellor Nadhim Zahawi may well be the king of political comebacks.

As vaccines minister during the Covid pandemic, he appeared to walk on water, with one of the most successful jab roll-outs in the Western world.

Then, after a spell as Education Secretary, his fortunes changed as he was lumbered with the humiliating title of one of the shortest-serving chancellors on record, after being hired by a beleagured Boris Johnson in the dying days of his premiership.

Zahawi returned to Cabinet as party chairman under Rishi Sunak, but was sacked in disgrace after it emerged he negotiated a multimillion pound settlement with the taxman during his brief stint as Chancellor – and therefore in charge of HMRC.

Now the multi-millionaire founder of YouGov, who quit as an MP at the last election, may be re-entering the political fray.

Word is Zahawi, 57, who has a £20million townhouse in London, will throw his hat in the ring as the Tories' mayoral candidate.

Labour's Sadiq Kahn is on his third term and the Tories think next time round, with the Labour Government likely to lose its shine by the 2028 contest, they have a chance at the mayoralty for the first time since Boris.

Zahawi and Boris are firm friends – and I hear the former PM has given Zahawi's mayoral ambition his blessing.

Daft claim of the week

Labour's Lord Watts said there should be an investigation into impartiality at the BBC because it was 'dominated by Conservatives'.

Next he'll accuse Communist rag the Morning Star of being stuffed with capitalists.

A swift £3,500 with Nige...

To the Reform UK fundraiser at the George Hotel in Leeds, where MP Lee Anderson was given a rapturous reception by guests – many of whom used to be Tory party activists.

One even paid £3,500 just to have a drink with Nigel Farage.

At the rate he drinks a pint, it will be short meeting.

Both loyal and indiscreet

Only days after the memorial service for Lord Fellowes – a loyal servant of the Queen for 30 years and the husband of Princess Diana's sister Jane – the playwright Sir David Hare revealed a chance meeting with the Old Etonian at Lord's in the early 1990s.

'Fellowes said: 'If ever you do write about the Palace, be sure to give me a call.'

Fellowes was Private Secretary to the Queen at the time.

'I was astonished,' writes Hare in The Spectator. 'He was both loyal and indiscreet – a hard combination to pull off.'

The real price of Labour

Two years ago, Labour captured Wandsworth Council, a jewel in the Tory local government crown, for the first time since 1978.

Now the locals are paying the price. The council has quietly announced it is to borrow £450million – paid back over 50 years.

The council will be paying more in interest than it actually borrows.

Same old Labour, spending money they haven't got.

Liam's yet to break his silence

Most new MPs have broken their duck but Liam Conlon, son of Starmer's gauleiter Sue Gray, has yet to utter a word in the Commons.

Labour super-donor Lord Alli gave £10,000 to Conlon's local party to help get him elected.

He – and the voters of Beckenham & Penge – might soon be asking for a refund.

Bob's your betrayed novellist

Robert Harris has dedicated his latest bestseller, Precipice, to his grandson George.

But he admits he's unhappy with his daughter, George's mother.

She works at rival publisher Simon & Schuster, which brought out Bob Mortimer's new book on the same day.

'That destroyed whatever chance I had of going to number one,' he quips.

'I feel like King Lear. How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child.'