INTERVIEW: The Herald talks to MP Nadhim Zahawi at Stratford Town Football Club where he had been due to launch his bid to retain the seat he has held since 2010

It was a difficult decision. It’s hard to leave such a wonderful constituency and people; the Conservative family Stratford-on-Avon I think is the best in the country. It’s the best seat in Parliament. So it was with mixed feelings, as I think my [resignation] letter suggested.

But I think it’s the right decision and I think the constituency deserves a young, energetic new candidate. We’re not going to be short of candidates. The Conservative Party is blessed with some great talent that’s going to come through.

I am about to celebrate my 58th birthday in June and I just felt it was the right time for me and my family. I’ve had a wonderful 14 years, before that I was in local government, so I’ve had something like 30-plus years in Conservative politics, and I think it’s time to move on.

You mentioned an energetic candidate. Have any names been thrown into the ring yet?

I’m certain there’ll be some great candidates and some fantastic talent. But there’s a process and we have to respect that, and I don’t want to prejudice anybody’s chances at this stage. As I’m sure you know, all political parties have their processes, and the Conservative Party has a pretty well structured process to select the next candidate, as I discovered in 2010.

What qualities do you think are required to be Stratford MP? Who should they be looking for locally?

Someone who’s prepared to make the local commitment, to put down roots in our constituency, to work hard as a champion for the people of Stratford. I always made it my priority to make sure that my surgeries were always face-to-face, apart from the period of Covid lockdown. And that has to be the priority for any candidate.

I hope there will be a politician that can play their part on the national stage. I got to Number 11 Downing Street, and I hope the next Conservative Member of Parliament for Stratford will be able to be around the cabinet table. You never know, maybe one day, when Rishi Sunak decides to retire, we might have a potential prime minister in Stratford.

People have been speculating about why you’ve stepped down now. Not least the fact that local Lib Dems are ahead in the polls. Was there a fear they would give you good fight, and win the seat?

I’ve always worked in Stratford as if the seat is a marginal seat. I don’t think you can take anything for granted anywhere in the country and we continue to work hard.

We had a great victory for Philip Seccombe in the police and crime commissioner elections. I think the Lib Dems would have been very disappointed in the result – they were nowhere near doing as well as they had hoped to do if they were going to win in a general election. So I’m confident we’ll return a Conservative MP in Stratford, but we’re never complacent.

We have to work hard, the whole association does. As you can see behind you, the preparations for the campaign day are pretty lively. We have got some fantastic young activists, not least in India Tibbs who has done a phenomenal job in the campaign for Philip Seccombe and will continue in the campaign for the general election.

You’ve had a few PR issues, notably over your tax affairs and the barrage of criticism that’s gone with that. This week there were repeated allegations about your lawyer intimidating tax expert Dan Neidle. How have you coped with that backlash?

Look, I dealt with the issue of my tax affairs and I was very open about it. And of course when I left the cabinet as chairman I expressed my regret, my sorrow about my declaration of my taxes. My settlement with HMRC is fully up to date. I haven’t seen anything that anyone has put out there in terms of the social media. My standing down as the Member of Parliament for the next election is because I think it’s the right time for me to make way for someone who I hope will enjoy their time and make as much of this great constituency as I did over the 14 years.

What is your take on Dan Neidle saying that your lawyer used intimidatory tactics?

I haven’t actually seen any of that. The lawyer that I had represent me is one of the best professionals in the country, but I haven’t seen anything else.

You’ve been MP here since 2010. Looking back, what do you think locally have been your proudest achievements?

I think my proudest achievements are the cards, letters and emails I get every week from constituents saying thank you for solving my problems. In 2023 and the first quarter of 2024, we’ve dealt with something like 13,000 enquiries, emails, problems, resolutions, surgery appointments – that has to be my proudest achievement. As well as this, the work we did on the Birmingham Road; it took a very long time but we did some good work with the county council.

Every single day you have to champion your constituency. Yesterday I had a round table with Barclays Bank and small businesses, and also local farmers – they gave me some great feedback.

You remember Stratford is a very rural constituency, so farming is important for me. All these things are what I would call the sort of the daily achievements that matter most. They make all the brickbats worthwhile that you get on the social media platforms.

There’s been a criticism over the years that your ministerial positions have distracted you away from a more local concerns. Do you think that’s fair?

That’s never happened. Not one day of my life have I been distracted away from my work as the local Member of Parliament, and I think testament to that is my postbag and what we do for our residents. And that will continue all the way through until the general election.

I have always made that my priority from day one [in 2010]. The first thing I did was get my small team together and get going on the postbag that I inherited from my predecessor John Maples. Dealing with the postbag has to be the priority for any MP.

In your resignation letter you said rather poetically that your mistakes have been yours, and you acknowledge the help of the team. Do you have any regrets? Would you acknowledge what those mistakes are? And with hindsight would you have done things differently at all?

Of course, absolutely. I think now when I look back when I settled with HMRC, I wish I’d been more explicit in my ministerial declaration about my settlement, no doubt in my mind. But you know, I don’t think any human is perfect, not least this Member of Parliament. But I hope that I’ve contributed more to this constituency, to the nation that has adopted me, than I have taken out.

I’ve been a very lucky man in my life, as I’ve referred to in my letter… public service is an absolute privilege and I would do it all over again if I was 20 years younger.

What have you got planned next?

As you know, I've been a businessman before, a reasonably successful one. I’ve had no shortage of offers since I left cabinet of doing things back in business. I’ve deliberately not taken anything on, but I might do now. [It was announced on Monday that he had been appointed chair of the Very Group, a business owned by the Barclay family].

By the way, I really do think that MPs should be able to be doctors, entrepreneurs, nurses, teachers and still serve as Members of Parliament. I think that connection with what I would describe as the real world is really important. It’s healthy because you bring that outside experience to Parliament. Entrepreneurs, for example, will lose money before they make money. So before we start talking about more regulation or more taxation, let’s just be cognizant to the fact that entrepreneurism is really hard; if it were easy everyone would be doing it, and therefore let’s be careful when we put barriers in front of wealth creators.

You mention who should be a suitable MP… Just going back to who would be good for Stratford, local people have said they don’t want someone parachuted in, they want someone with local connections. How realistic is that and do you see anyone locally who would be a good fit?

The one thing I would warn against is that someone with a name like Zahawi would have found it very difficult to claim roots anywhere in this great country of ours. So ultimately you want to choose the best candidate who’s willing to commit to the constituency and put down roots here. If they have local links that’s wonderful, but if they don’t that should not prejudice them – that would be my message to my colleagues in the association and also to my constituents.

We heard you might be getting involved in other businesses, the Daily Telegraph, for example. What is your motivation and what are you looking for in your next step?

Fixing problems, I love challenges. Whether it’s a turnaround in a business or delivering the vaccine. I like to take on big challenges and hopefully fix them.

And you’re leaving politics for now. Will you ever return?

I shall be retiring whenever the election is called. But you never know what life brings. The moment my focus will be my family. And of course, my Conservative family here to get us to the election to win a resounding victory in Stratford-on-Avon. And of course make sure that we return the Conservative government.

So you’re not ruling out returning to politics one day?

It’s a privilege to serve, but I think I’ve put my fair share in over the past 30 years, both in local government and in frontline politics in parliament.

I think it’s time to move on. I look at my life in decades. I had a decade at YouGov. I had almost a decade and a half in Stratford-on-Avon. There’s a couple more decades in me of doing some good stuff.

Have you been affected by the very toxic comments about you personally, and has that been part of your decision to step away?

It comes with the with the job. I’m a grown up and I know these things happen, there are keyboard warriors – those that sit at home who criticise and attack. I wish they’d just look in the mirror one day and think what are they doing to make their country better.

It comes with the territory. My job is to communicate what we’re doing locally, what I’m doing personally, what my party’s doing and set our stall and then the nation can decide.

I’d do it all over again. I’ve had a wonderful journey. The majority of people in Stratford-on-Avon are incredible human beings, very kind, generous people. I know that because of my postbag. I know that because at my lowest, when I had my difficulties leaving cabinet, the number of emails, texts and letters from locals who said ‘stay strong, keep going, you’ve done nothing wrong, this is a blip and you’ll be back’. Those are the things that keep you going. Humanity is a wonderful thing.

Many of us with your kind of wealth might go, ‘do you know what, I’m just going to take it easy’. Is that ever on the horizon?

I think I would keel over and die. My wife often accuses me of being a workaholic. I love challenges. After the election I’ll probably take a holiday with the family and then come back refreshed for the next chapter of my life. My family have been so supportive, they know I’ve made the right decision.

We’ll be looking after the house and land at Tysoe still. And I will be a foot soldier in Stratford to make sure we return the Conservative victory here and demonstrate to our constituents why politics matters.