REFORM UK “has no shame,” Labour said today after former Conservative chancellor Nadhim Zahawi announced he was joining the party.

Mr Zahawi, who led Britain’s vaccine rollout during the pandemic, said Britain was “drinking at the last-chance saloon” and “really does need Nigel Farage as prime minister.”

He announced his defection at a press conference alongside Mr Farage, who said the move showed Reform UK was not a “one-man band.”

Mr Zahawi was sacked as Conservative Party chairman in 2023 for breaching the ministerial code over his tax affairs and later paid a near-£5 million settlement to HM Revenue & Customs. 

Mr Farage defended him, saying disputes with HMRC were common among people with “complex business empires.”

The Tories described Mr Zahawi’s defection as the latest of several “has-been politicians looking for their next gravy train.”

Labour Party chairwoman Anna Turley said: “This confirms what we already knew. Reform UK has no shame. 

“Nadhim Zahawi is a discredited and disgraced politician who will be forever tied to the Tories’ shameful record of failure in government.”