‘It can be recovered. I’m confident it can be recovered’

Tory chairman Nadhim Zahawi is certain the party’s decline in polls will be turned around

Nadhim Zahawi has one of the hardest jobs in politics. Staring down the barrel of a 24-point Labour poll lead and surrounded by gloomy colleagues on the Tory benches, the Iraqi-born Tory chairman who served as Britain’s Covid vaccine minister has been put in charge of winning the next general election.

“It can be recovered. I’m confident it can be recovered,” he told The Sunday Telegraph in his office at Conservative HQ in Westminster this week.

The scale of the challenge is unprecedented. The Tories face a wipeout in heartland constituencies in the south of England, where Labour and the Liberal Democrats are campaigning hard, and in the northern “Red Wall” where they won for the first time under Boris Johnson in 2019.

Many argue that after 12 years in power the party has run out of ideas, even as they face an economic crisis that will see living standards plummet to the lowest level on record.

The Government is on its fourth chancellor of the year, and its third prime minister.

Against that backdrop, Mr Zahawi says, he is “not surprised” by reports that voters have abandoned his party in droves. “It hasn’t been six, seven weeks or the previous eight weeks, it has been over 12 months where we’ve had real problems with discipline in our party,” he says. “That is what people are responding to.”

“When people are asked the question, ‘If there’s an election tomorrow, how would you vote?’, it’s a hypothetical question. They know there’s no election tomorrow.

“So what they’re responding to is how they’re feeling about the performance of their government.”

This week, Jeremy Hunt attempted to assuage concerns about the Conservatives’ handling of the economy by launching a tax raid on businesses and Britain’s middle classes and ordering Whitehall departments to find spending cuts.

Treasury sources insist the

Chancellor’s Autumn Statement has not reintroduced austerity on the scale of George Osborne’s post-crash Budgets, and point to figures by the Office for Budget Responsibility that show departmental spending will not fall in real terms.

But the Conservatives must square the decision to freeze thresholds, cut allowances and raise corporation tax with a summer of rhetoric – including from Mr Zahawi – about lower taxes during the Tory leadership race.

Fresh from a reception for business leaders, the Tory chairman says bosses are now more than willing to absorb extra taxes because the statement combined “stability” with support for energy bills costing billions.

“I would happily stand on the record of economic prudence and, of course, delivery of really strong public services. And I think people will understand, people will see it,” he says.

The measures will increase the tax burden to its highest since the Second World War, when Mr Zahawi says households were happier to accept higher taxes. He draws a parallel with the situation today: “We have war on our continent and a dictator, a despot, who is deliberately using financial instruments to attack back at us.”

But Mr Zahawi also reveals he and his Cabinet colleagues still hope to cut taxes, ideally before the next general election. “We take collective responsibility that we do want to bear down on the tax burden,” he says.

“But we have a challenge today, which if allowed to take hold, to embed, will be deeply damaging.

“We wouldn’t have a hope in hell of being able to do anything to bear down on taxation if we don’t deal with inflation in the first place.

“And that’s what I think we will do, and when we come out the other end I’m sure Jeremy Hunt’s priority will be to start looking at what more we can do to help people with the tax burden.”

That news could play well on the Tory benches in the Commons, where MPs are grumbling about the impact of tax increases on business investment – and their majorities.

Mr Zahawi’s office sits at the end of a bank of desks in the unremarkable interior of 4 Matthew Parker Street, which has housed the party since 2014.

His wall is adorned with a large portrait of Margaret Thatcher, next to a photograph of Queen Elizabeth II.

The chairman says that since Rishi Sunak took office, “the phones have been ringing” with business leaders offering their support and cash.

“We’re getting a series of people who’ve never donated to the party before, coming through saying, ‘I

‘It has not been weeks, it’s over 12 months we have had problems with discipline in our party. That is what people are responding to’

‘We are getting a series of people who have never donated to the party before who really like what Rishi stands for and want to engage with the party’

really like what Rishi stands for [and] I want to engage with the party.’”

With the authority of the Prime Minister, Mr Zahawi has set about changing the party’s internal structures and removing key figures.

Darren Mott resigned from his post as chief executive and remains an adviser, while Malik Karim, the treasurer, is to be replaced by a group of people tasked with bringing in more donations before the next election.

Isaac Levido, the Australian political strategist credited by many with masterminding the 2019 election victory, has been brought back into the fold as an adviser to Mr Zahawi.

Despite the energy he says the building now contains, the chairman says his message to voters ahead of the next election is “one of humility”. The Tories must “show by doing” and rebuild their reputation through successful reforms.

“There’s nothing more honest than saying to people, ‘judge me by my performance, judge me by my outcomes, what I’ve delivered and demonstrated’,” he says.“I think actually what Jeremy did was incredible – just to say to people that ‘I wish it could be different, but it’s not.’”

He believes Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-Budget was a “mistake”, but is keen to emphasise Mr Hunt’s statement contained a “big slice” on encouraging economic growth “which is what Liz was passionate about”.

And like Mr Sunak, he appears to recognise the leadership cannot credibly distance itself from Mr Johnson and Ms Truss’s administrations after serving in them. “I’m very fond of reminding all of my colleagues [...] when you put on the England shirt, you’re on the pitch,” he says. “You play as a team, because that’s how you win.”

On Sunday mornings, Mr Zahawi, who has represented Stratford-onAvon since 2010, allows himself a rare moment to think solely about himself – while writing a memoir. “I’ve had an extraordinary life,” he says.“I arrived on these shores at 11. I hardly spoke a word of English, and I sit before you as the Member of Parliament for Shakespeare – the heart of England.

“I have been Second Lord of the Treasury, and I am now chairman of the oldest party on Earth.”

“You can do anything in this country,” adds Mr Zahawi.

His task to turn around the fortunes of the Conservative Party will put that to the test.