Former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi insists the Tories were 'wrong to oust Boris Johnson'.

In his first newspaper interview since being sacked as party chairman, Mr Zahawi, 56, called the former Prime Minister the most 'consequential' leader since Margaret Thatcher. 

He said he and other Cabinet members should not have forced him to resign in 2022. 

The multi-millionaire, who was sacked by Rishi Sunak over his tax affairs, told The Sunday Times: 'I wish we had held our nerve.

'If colleagues had stepped back and just realised Twitter was not the country, we'd have probably made a very different decision … how many Prime Ministers have had to deal with Brexit, a global pandemic and then economic recovery beyond that: to cap it all, war on our continent, where he led the world.' 

Former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi (pictured, leaving the Conservative Campaign Headquarters in January) insists the Tories were 'wrong to oust Boris Johnson'

In his first newspaper interview since being sacked as party chairman, Mr Zahawi, 56, called the former Prime Minister (pictured, in 2021) the most 'consequential' leader since Margaret Thatcher

The multi-millionaire, who was sacked by Rishi Sunak (pictured, at the Conservative Party Spring Conference in Blackpool in 2022) over his tax affairs, told The Sunday Times: 'I wish we had held our nerve'

He also regrets his dismissal over his handling of a £5million settlement with the taxman, which included a £1million penalty for making a 'careless' error over tax due on the sale of shares in YouGov, the polling company he helped to found. 

Zahawi told The Sunday Times: 'The mistake was not to be explicit about the settlement with HMRC.'