Who is Nadhim Zahawi, UK’s new Finance Minister replacing Rishi Sunak?
Boris Johnson government is going through a change with two of its ministers resigning from their posts. The Indian-origin investment banker-turned-politician Rishi Sunak has been replaced with Nadhim Zahawi as Britain’s new Finance Minister. Sunak, along with Health minister Sajid Javid resigned after the latest scandal struck Johnson administration.
Nadhim Zahawi, 55, was first elected as a Conservative MP for Stratford-on-Avon in 2010. Zahawi hails from Iraq and moved to Britain in 1976 when his Kurdish family fled the rule of Saddam Hussein. He was then 11-years-old. Zahawi has overcome personal difficulties to reach where he is today.
During his childhood, his teachers warned Zahawi’s parents that he might suffer from learning difficulties after he initially struggled to speak English. But today he is the new Finance Minister of Britain. Nadhim Zahawi is an entrepreneur turned politician.
Who is Nadhim Zahawi?
Britain’s new Finance Minister Nadhim Zahawi was born in Baghdad in 1967, as per BBC report.
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Nadhim Zahawi’s father was a businessman and his mother a dentist by profession.
At the age of 11, after Zahawi came to Britain he was privately educated, before forging a lucrative business career.
Zahawi worked in the 1990s as an aide for novelist and politician Jeffrey Archer, who was jailed for perjury in 2001.
Zahawi co-founded the prominent polling company YouGov in 2000 and was its chief executive until 2010.
Nadhim Zahawi was active in local Conservative politics in London, before becoming an MP in 2010.
Zahawi ran in the 2010 general election as the Conservative Party candidate for Stratford-upon-Avon and won.
His success in business prompted then PM David Cameron to appoint Zahawi to the policy unit in Downing Street.
He was appointed minister in charge of the Covid-19 vaccine rollouts in 2020 and won widespread praise for his work.
In 2021, the then PM Boris Johnson appointed Nadhim Zahawi to the cabinet as education secretary.
